Title: Everyone is slightly abnormal 1/2
Title: Everyone is slightly abnormal
Author: kaitlia777
Author's e-mail/website: kaitlia777@yahoo.com
Fandom: Castle/Sanctuary
Summary: Something about this case just screamed ABNORMAL.
Type / Pairings: Don’t want to spoil a surprise!
Main characters: Pretty much everyone’s here!
Rating: R for language
Warnings: A bit of grossness in describing the crime scene
Spoilers: Anything that’s aired in the US is fair game
Beta: N/A
Disclaimer: Don’t own any of the recognizable character, just taking them out to play!
Author's Notes: This fic was prompted by lanna_kitty , who wanted a Sanctuary/Castle crossover.
Since he’d begun riding along with Detective Kate Beckett, Richard Castle had gotten the opportunity to see quite a few dead bodies. Many murdered in unusual, often gruesome ways. He’d thought he was becoming somewhat used to the gore (hell, it was part of his job to come up with horrible and interesting ways to kill people, but seeing it was another thing all together), while still retaining his essential humanity.
Nothing he’d seen or imagined could have prepared him for the crime scene he just followed Becket into.
The first hint that something was wrong should have been the cluster of nauseous looking uniformed officers standing in to hall. There was even a young kid losing his lunch and no one was harassing him about it. Usually, anyone who puked at a scene was mocked mercilessly. It was a cop thing.
Even before stepping over the threshold, Rick found his senses assaulted by the heavy, copper penny scent of blood, lots and lots of blood, mixed with the sickly sweet eau de early decomp.
Frankly, it looked like some kind of a wild animal (or a dozen) had been let loose in the room to savage (and that was the appropriate word) a person. Then perhaps take the time to toss random buckets of blood around, ‘cause damn there was a lot of the stuff visible.
There were chunks of person everywhere, too. Lanie, Ryan and Esposito were inspecting different piles of meat, bone and viscera. Professionals that they were, none of them were getting sick, though Ryan was looking even paler than he normally did and Esposito hopped to the side to avoid being spattered by…yeah, that was an ear. It had been stuck to the ceiling, but had chosen to fall just as the detective was passing under it.
Everyone stared at the offending ear before Esposito breathed, “Man, that’s just wrong.”
“Anyone got an ID on our vic?” Beckett inquired, stepping carefully across the room, on her toes to avoid blood stains.
“Uh, found a hand…Looks a little chewed on, but mostly intact, ” Ryan said, bending over to peer under a low table, “But, yeah, manager said he rented the room to an Erasmo Bullwinkle. I’m thinking that might be an alias.”
“It’s not.” Rick felt his stomach lurch as he stared at the pitiful pile of remains that used to be a person. A man. A man he knew. “He’s an acquaintance. Fellow writer…his genre’s Urban Fantasy though….”
Beckett gave him a concerned look and he nodded, indicating that he was all right. Sure, the gore of the room was even more horrible now that he knew it had come from Raz -- Erasmo’s nickname -- but he knew if he seemed too upset that would mean getting benched.
“Take a look at this,” Lanie murmured to Beckett, crouched beside….oh, that was definitely a head. She was holding something she’d pulled from the pulpy, severed stump that was left of Raz’s neck. As the thought flitted through his mind, Rick winced, wishing he could turn off the voice in his head that always tried to word things like he was putting them down on paper.
Beckett took the object Lanie offered and held it up to a light. “Is that…a tooth?” Ryan asked, scrunching up his face. “Please tell me that’s not a tooth.”
It didn’t look like any tooth Rick had ever seen. It was more of a serrated fang.
“This has to be a weapon,” Beckett said, sounding dubious. “Nothing has teeth like this.”
Nothing normal anyway. “I need some air,” Rick announced, picking his way back out of the room and avoiding the concerned gazes of his friends.
While the fresh air was good, it wasn’t why he wanted out of the room. No, a phone call had to be made and it wasn’t one Beckett and the others needed to know about.
At least, not yet.
“I’m just saying, everyone’s heard about your crazy Bollywood dance number in India. How did you manage that if Wii DDR kicks your ass?”
Kate Freelander asked, giving Will Zimmerman at teasing glare across the passenger area of the Sanctuary’s jet.
His response was to toss his hands in the air and say, “That was the Macri, not me!”
“Still,” Kate said with a sigh, “You could have warned me about your two left feet.”
Looking up from his tablet computer, Henry Foss grinned at her. “You were the one who picked him for your team.”
From his seat by the wet bar, Tesla came out of the brood he’d been in Magnus had disappeared into the cockpit. “Wait, you’re saying Team Furball beat the two of you? Oh, well that’s just sad.”
“The Big Guy can be really agile when he wants to be,” Kate defended her TV buddy, who had stayed behind at the Old City Sanctuary to hold down the fort while the rest of them jaunted off to New York, answering an SOS from a friend of Magnus’s.
At least, that’s what Kate thought they were doing. She didn’t know why the NYC Sanctuary couldn’t handle whatever had happened and Magnus hadn’t explained much, saying she’d brief them on the plane, but her powwow with the pilot had taken precedence.
“Perhaps some innate Abnormal grace explains Big and Hairy’s skill, but what of Tiny Tim?” Tesla smirked, seeming to never tire of tossing short jokes at Henry. While Hank wasn’t the biggest guy around, Kate had never really thought of him as ‘tiny’…and it wasn’t as though Tesla was a giant like Druitt.
Rolling his eyes, Hank said, “Keeping a rhythm is not that hard.”
Huh. Kate knew that expression. Hank definitely didn’t want to tell them something. Glancing around, she saw Tesla and Will take note of this as well.
“Secret past as a rave kid?” Will joked, sharp profiler eyes looking to see if he was on the right track.
Leaning forward, Tesla prodded, “Frustrated yearning to be a ballet dancer?”
That image made Kate giggle, but Hank scowled and sighed. “If you must know, Doc made me and Ash go to a whole bunch of classes when we were kids, trying to socialize us. Dance, gymnastics, music… of course, self-defense was kept in house. And contact sports were out after the Football Incident.”
So much in that statement begged for further explanation. Surprisingly, it was Will who managed to voice his question first. “Socialize you? Trouble at school?”
Hank gave him a look. “Home schooled till we were 12. As you can imagine, we didn’t get out much.”
With a grimace, Kate tried to imagine growing up in the Gothic castle with Magus and Biggie as both tutors and caregivers. The thought was both nice ( she was sure the education was top notch and there would’ve been plenty of affection) and horrible (Oh my God, some of the residents looked like the stuff of nightmares and Magnus probably read them Grimm’s fairy tales, not the Disneyfied versions.).
“Football or American football?” That question was from Tesla, who looked gleeful. “And you must explain the incident or I will hound you mercilessly.”
Casting a pleading gaze towards the cockpit, clearly hoping Magnus would arrive, Henry sighed. “Football. Soccer. Ashley went through a biting phase when she was four.”
A ghost of a smile crossed Will’s face, as he seemed quite capable of imagining Magnus’s daughter taking a bite out of someone on the soccer field.
Before she got her own question out, Magnus chose to reappear, settling down in one of the plush seats and saying, “Sorry for ignoring you all. Now, as I said, earlier today I received a call from the son of a trusted friend. Richard works with the NYPD and happened upon a crime scene that calls for our intervention. . Erasmo Bullwinkle…” she paused when Kate couldn’t quite contain a bark of laughter, “… was murdered quite viciously. I made contact with some of our allies in government and have been assured cooperation from the NYPD. Henry, you should have received a file.”
“Got it,” he replied, clicking at his tablet and cringing. “Guh!”
He turned the computer so they could all view the display of grisly crime scene photos. When what appeared to be a really nasty tooth popped up, Magnus pointed at it.
“I won’t be able to say for certain without a first-hand inspection of the tooth, but I believe that to be the incisor of a Liath, a particularly aggressive but savvy breed of Abnormal who often hire out as mercenaries.”
Hank called up an index of known Abnormals and found an image of a Liath. It was a large being, more or less human looking, though the jaw was distended to make room for the fangs. Its torso was covered in an armor like series of scales, a protective shell around the vital organs, but, if clothed, it could probably pass for a particularly unpleasant looking men.
“Bullwinkle himself was an Abnormal, a Herpandrite. Basically human, but two times a year he’d shed his skin. He was fully assimilated into society, a fairly popular fantasy novelist. At the moment, I have no idea why anyone would want him dead.”
“This friend of yours, Richard? Do you think he’ll be able to help on the scene. Able to keep his people away from our… purview?” Tesla mused. “Not that I care particularly, but you do.”
Magnus shook her head. “Unfortunately, Richard is not a police officer. He’s a novelist, shadowing a detective on whom he’s based a character….”
“Wait. Richard…. You don’t mean Richard Castle?” Will asked and Magnus nodded. “I love his books.”
“What’s he write?” Kate asked, knowing the name sounded vaguely familiar, but unable to place it.
Shooting her disbelieving look, Will said, “The Derek Storm novels. Heat Wave. Naked Heat….Anybody? No? Mystery novels, people?”
Magnus nodded a bit, though Kate was willing to bet she’d never read one of those books. Tesla just raised imperious brow and Hank shrugged. “Yeah, sounds sort of familiar.”
“They’re making a movie out of one of the books, right?” Kate asked and Will seemed relieved by the hint that she and Hank were at least somewhat familiar with the books.
Magnus and Tesla…. Well, let’s just say their idea of pop culture was vastly different than the rest of the world’s. Hers was random, at best and he seemed to harbor a marked distaste for anything that post dated the early 20th Century.
Upon landing in New York, they piled into a large, chauffeured car that was waiting for them. Another ferried their luggage and equipment to Magnus’s home in the city, a lovely brownstone if Kate recalled correctly.
Clearly, they weren’t going to the brownstone. Instead they arrived at the pricy building where Castle lived. Magnus led the way up to the penthouse, though she said she’d never visited before. The posh environment was clearly her element, in a way that Kate had no illusion she could fake.
The door was answered by an elegantly dressed woman in her 60s, who smiled warmly at Helen and said, “My dear, you look as lovely as ever. I’m jealous!”
“Hello, Martha,” Magnus replied, embracing the women, obviously an old friend. “How have you been?”
Martha gestured expressively she waved them in. “Keeping busy,” she said. “I’ve opened a drama school. So that’s keeping me occupied.”
The two women shared a chuckle and Martha sobered to say, “I heard about Ashley and dear James. They will be missed.”
“Yes,” Magnus agreed, in that voice she always used when someone brought up Ashley. Changing the topic, she said, “You remember Henry?”
Hank grinned and gave Martha a little wave and she smiled at him. “It’s been a long time,” she commented, then her grin grew teasing. “Didn’t you turn out well!”
As Hank pinked up and made some polite response, Kate decided she was going to like Martha. “Kate Freelander,” she said, holding out her hand.
“Charmed, dear,” Martha replied as they shook.
When it was Will’s turn, the profiler politely smiled. “Will Zimmerman… and Mr. Lack of Boundaries who is poking around your fridge is Tesla.”
“Nikola!” Magnus chastised the former vampire, but Martha simply chuckled.
“Please, don’t encourage him,” Will moaned, but no one acknowledged her complaint.
Turning toward the stairs, Martha called out, “Richard, Alexis, our guests are here.”
Time to get down to business.
Kate Beckett knew Castle had been behaving strangely (well, even stranger than usual) when he ducked out of the Bullwinkle crime scene. Then he made an excuse to leave the station and now, at 10:15 PM, he called and asked her to meet him at a large brownstone on the Upper East Side.
When she rang the doorbell, it let out an ominous gong and, moments later, the huge doors swung open. Castle was standing there, looking serious and more than a little guilty.
“Thanks for coming,” he said, ushering her into an entry hall that just shrieked understated, old money. “I know you’re busy.”
“Busy waiting on some so-called specialists the governor’s ordered us to cooperate with,” she merely growled, then regretted her anger when he flinched.
At least, she regretted it until he spoke.
“Um, about that,” he said, then led the way further into the house and placed a hand on a wall, opening a hidden door… to a room that did not look like it belonged.
A tall, dark-haired woman stood before a wall-mounted screen, reading aloud the data presented there. Martha was listening with interest as a wide eyed Alexis hovered by a man hunched over a computer, Bullwinkle‘s thrashed cell phone on the desk beside him. A lovely young woman of Indian descent was pacing and yelling into a phone, as was another young man.
“Castle, what’s going on?” she asked, feeling like she was suddenly out of the loop.
She hated that feeling.
“Well, well, well, who is this?”
A man had sauntered out of the shadows, giving her a blatant once over. Kate bristled, ready to deliver a verbal smack down, when the young man with the phone looked up.
“Tesla, would you please…No, you know what? Go ahead and be yourself. I’ve read her file. Maybe she’ll do us all a favor and shoot you.”
“Will,” the tall, brunette with Martha had abandoned the screens and nodded to Kate greeting. “Detective Beckett, I presume. Martha and Richard have spoken highly of both your investigative prowess and your discretion.”
While that was all well and good, Kate was starting to get a little annoyed. Okay, that was an understatement. “Thanks. So, who are you people?”
“Direct. Good,” the woman said. “Tell me, Detective, are you open minded?”
Oh, this was not going to turn out well. Will had seen the tension and annoyance radiating off of the detective from the moment she stepped into the room. She had been unhappy about outsiders getting involved in her case before even arriving and her feeling of unease was compounded by being thrown into the midst of a group of (admittedly) odd strangers.
Tesla being his usual, letchy self wasn‘t helping any, either. Seriously, the more Magnus talked, explaining who they were, what the Sanctuary was and how they were involved with her case, the more Beckett looked like she wanted to punch someone.
It was either going to be Castle or Tesla, Will decided as Magnus summed up the situation.
For a moment, Beckett was silent, then she said, “You want me to believe monsters killed Bullwinkle?”
“Not monsters,” Henry corrected, looking up from the search he was doing on his computer. “Abnormals. And, in this case, a specific Abnormal…though he or she may have been working for someone.”
Beckett blinked at him, then rounded on Castle. “How do you know these people, how do the crazy people have the governor convinced we should work with them, why are your mother and daughter here and… Step off.”
That last comment was directed at Tesla, who quickly changed course and wandered back around the table to hover by Magnus. Will thought that was probably a smart choice on the ex-vampire’s part.
“I know this is a bit much to take in, but, I’m telling you, they are for real,” the author attempted to reassure her, but stepped back under the force of her disbelieving glare.
From across the room, Martha said, “Kate, dear, I’ve known Helen for many years and I can vouch for her and her people…and, as for Alexis, she’s old enough to know about this part of life, I think.”
“Doc, I got a few locations of interest out of Bullwinkle’s phone,” Henry called out, then pointed to something on the screen. “See, that’s how you reconstruct the data from the SIM card.”
“Cool,” Alexis uttered, her interested face illuminated by the LCD screen.
“My contact won’t talk over the phone,” Kate said, angrily ending her call. It always amazed Will, how she could give the impression of slamming a call phone as though it was a hand held. “I need to go meet Twinkie. He sounds like he’s either tweaking or really nervous about what I was asking….”
The doorbell rang and this time Alexis stepped out to answer, knowing it was the other two detectives that Castle had called.
Magnus was already jumping ahead. “Right, Kate, you and Will speak with your contact. Take along a detective or two. Henry, Nikola, the same for Henry’s leads. I have a contact of my own….”
“Hold on!” Beckett said, tossing up a hand to halt the proceedings as Alexis led two men into the room.
The pair looked around, taking in the scene, doing a good job of masking their confusion.
“We have our orders,” she continued, then shook her head, “But, I’m sorry, all this is too much. Monsters and conspiracies…I am not sending my people out into God knows what….”
“We don’t have time for this,” Magnus said, picking up her jacket and glancing across the room. “I assume you will continue to refuse to believe us barring proof. Henry, if you would?”
The tech stopped in the middle of shutting down some program and asked, “What?”
“Beckett, what’s going on?” one of the detectives asked as Magnus turned to Henry.
“These are the people we’re supposed to work with. They’re delusional,” Beckett muttered, making sure to keep an eye on them all. She seemed to think that one of them was about to snap and try to kill someone.
Magnus and Henry were having a conversation without words and, as always, Magnus won. Looking extremely put upon, Henry heaved a sigh and tilted his head from side to side, cracking his neck. “Only partial, no nakedness,” he declared, stepping back from the monitors and waving a finger at the detectives. “DO. NOT. SHOOT. ME.”
Will could never really classify the sound that accompanied Henry’s transformations. From a scientific point of view, he knew that the other man’s bones were breaking and reshaping themselves, muscles stretching and thickening, hair and claws bursting forth. The sound…some deep, instinctive reflex shuddered and the hair on the back of his neck rose..
Like, nails on a chalkboard.
The visual…even a partial transformation, hands and head, so as not to burst out of his clothes, was something really cool to behold. At least, it was cool once you got used to it.
To the uninformed, it was probably pretty damn creepy.
After a minute, Henry shifted back to his normal form and took a breath, rolling his shoulders to loosen sore, abused muscles.
“Proof enough for you?” Magnus asked and Will followed her gaze to those in the room whom had never witnessed a HAP in action. Martha’s brows were raised, Alexis’s eyes wide and Richard…well, he looked impressed and like he was biting back a million questions.
The three detectives, on the other hand, were another story all together. Beckett was blinking, mouth opening and closing silently as Esposito took a step back, hand falling to his gun. Ryan, the youngest of the group, looked only mildly surprised.
Of course they knew who they were going to be working with. It wasn’t paranoia to be overly cautious when someone was usually out to get you.
“So…you folks from the Sanctuary or something?” Ryan asked, curious but not shocked like his colleagues, who turned to gape at him.
Now, it was Magnus’s turn to look surprised. “You know of us? Good. That will be helpful.”
The younger detective shook his head. “Not really. My gran knew a selchie your people helped out of a jam.”
A selchie? Cool. Will had yet to meet one of those. Mostly, they hung out in Ireland, occasionally straying to Scotland and England, so the London Sanctuary handled dealings with them.
As opposed to the general vibe of curiosity in the room, Ryan’s co-workers looked like they could use a stiff drink.
“All right, we’re going to need to work together here, so why don’t we all….”
“Are you a werewolf?” Alexis interrupted, clearly unable to contain herself a second longer.
Henry scrunched up his face in distaste. “We don’t use that term. It’s Class 9 Hyper Accelerated Protean Life Form. HAP, for short.”
“Cool,” Alexis and her father breathed, then the older Castle asked, “Okay, Helen I know, but any superpowers for the rest of you?”
To sooth the frazzled detectives, Will said, “Sorry to disappoint, but I’m just a run of the mill human.”
“Same here,” Kate agreed with a smile.
Of course Tesla had to open his mouth. “I’m currently an ex-vampire with magnetic capabilities.”
Lovely, Will thought with a sigh and stepped forward, a placating smile on his face. Time for Damage control.
This whole case was screwy. From the moment he’d stepped into that blood bath of an apartment, to the high end brownstone (apparently the base of operations for the ‘specialists’ the governor wanted them to work with), to a dude that turned into some sort of monster movie wolf-man hybrid…..
Javi had seen some shit in his day, but this was a whole new level of freaky.
Still, they had a case to work somehow they’d wound up following a lead with the computer tech/not-a-werewolf and snaky Mr. Magneto. The latter of whom had complimented Ryan on his waistcoat then proceeded to let loose a snaky running commentary that hadn’t stopped since they entered the car.
Maybe being super annoying was another of the man’s powers. Glancing into the rearview mirror, Javi caught Henry’s eye and asked, “Does he ever stop?”
The scruffy guy snorted. “This is actually pretty well behaved for him.”
If this was well behaved, then what was he normally like? Exchanging a glance with Kevin, Javi knew his partner was wondering the same thing.
In the backseat, Tesla sneered, “You do know I can hear you.”
“Like that’s ever stopped you from insulting me!” Harry muttered, then one of the seemingly dozens of electronic gadgets he carried beeped. Fortunately, it just seemed to be a phone, as he held it to his ear to speak. “Hello, vriend! Ek wou jouvra oor die Liath jy het in ‘n koshuis? Ishy nog steeds in kontak met sy volk?”
Okay then.
“So,” Ryan asked quietly, turning in his seat to face Tesla, “you guys do this sort of thing often?”
Rolling his eyes, Tesla sighed. “Of late, yes. Heinrich’s been a white hat since Helen plucked him from the moor, but I previously chose to devote myself to my dual passions for scientific advancement and world domination.”
Still conversing with whomever had called him, Henry gave Tesla a dark look. Ryan however laughed and Javi snorted, amused by how dry the man had managed to make that remark.
Their amusement was cut short when Tesla grinned, joined in their laughter and commented, “You think I’m joking! How precious!”
Creepy again.
Hanging up, Henry looked a Tesla and said, “Just for once, stop! That was Marhee from the new Sanctuary in Kimberley. They have a Liath in residence, but he hasn’t heard anything about one of his own hopping the pond.” To Kevin and Javi, he added, “They prefer Europe to the US.”
“Good taste,” Tesla remarked, causing Henry to sigh.
Suddenly, a thought popped into Javi’s head and he had to ask. “Hey, so, are Chupacabras real?”
“Yes,” Tesla replied in a bored tone, looking out the window.
Henry looked up from whatever was beeping now. “Their reps are over hyped.”
Said the dude who could sprout claws and fangs. “We’re here,” Javi announced, never so glad for the opportunity to get out of a car. And that included the time when he was a uniform and had to take in a skel covered in raw sewage.
The address Henry had wrestled from Bullwinkle’s phone looked as abandoned as property records indicated it would be. The windows were boarded up and the fading sign indicated that, at one point, it had been a pet store.
Pulling something that looked like a steam punk Game Boy out of a pocket, Henry let out a low whistle. “What the hell are they doing in there? Power consumption is in-sane!”
“And no one would put a lock like that on a place like this without another motive,” Kev said, waving at the lock as he rapped on the door.
When no one replied, Javi pulled out his phone. “I don’t think we’re going to get a warrant based on….”
Henry squinted at the door then glanced at Tesla. “It’s electro-magnetically sealed.”
The man made a dismissive gesture…and the door swung open, surprising Ryan. “We still need….”
A warrant, probable cause, he might have said either, but was cut off as a bullet whizzed by his ear.
Someone clearly didn’t want them in there.
“How have you been, Helen? Honestly, now.”
Sitting in the drivers seat of her parked car, Helen turned to regard Martha with a sad smile. Her old friend has insisted she accompanied her to meet her contact, Joey Foo Foo. Alexis had wanted desperately to go with one of the groups heading out, but had settled for exploring the Brownstone and its computers when every adult had issued a firm no.
She might be old enough to know some things about the Sanctuary, but she was in no way trained for field missions
“I miss her every day,” Helen said softly, eyes drifting out the window. “When you’ve lived as long as I have, you become accustomed to losing people but it doesn’t get any easier. Ashley… I had no idea it could hurt this much.”
Sympathetically, Martha laid a hand on her arm. “I can’t even imagine,” she murmured and Helen knew her often overly dramatic friend was being very serious, as subject matter warranted.
In some respects, Martha had been lucky, Helen knew. Until recently, the other woman’s child had been far removed from danger, unlike Ashley, who had been raised practically in the line of fire. Safety was one of the reasons it had been decided that Richard was not to know his father, as everyone assumed he wouldn’t be able to resist the intrigue dealing presented by the Sanctuary.
James had followed the boy’s progress though, took pride in the clever mind displayed so well through his novels. But it wasn’t until taking up with Detective Beckett that Richard truly displayed some of his fathers affinity for crime solving. Helen knew James had been pleased as could be upon learning that Richard had begun shadowing the detectives, applying his aptitude to pursuits beyond pure entertainment.
Shaking herself from her reverie, Helen nodded as a figure appeared in the shadowy mouth of an alley. “That would be Foo Foo,” she said, slipping out of the car to get down to business.
“Magnus,” Joey hissed at her from under the cover of his hoodie, red eyes ticking over to Martha. “Thought you’d come alone.”
“She’s a friend,” Helen said, in no mood for dillydallying. Knowing exactly how to get the conversation started, she held up a roll of bills. “Information?”
The red eyes fixed on the money and Joey said, “Raz Bullwinkle. He’s been poking around the community. Talking with the local Abnormals and not always the ones who play nice with your little soldiers. Word is, he got into a long conversation with a Liath, who may or may not have said something about working with a group that used to be a big deal. You know them. The Cabal.”
Helen felt her blood run cold. She thought John had…dealt with the remainders of that particular organization after Ashley’s death.
“The Cabal?” she asked and to tell both Joey and Martha heard the dangerous note in her voice.
“’S right,” Joey explained quickly. “There’s been some noise about a small cell of them left in the city. Just a handful of scientists and a few goons. All I know, hand to God!”
Slapping the wad of money into Joey’s hand, Helen said, “You get double if you can find out where they’re based out of.”
With a nod, Joey disappeared back into the shadows and Helen took a cleansing breath.
“Do I want to know what The Cabal is?” Martha asked as they turned to head back to the car.
Closing her fist, Helen replied, “A large, ancient organization whose goal is to harness power, including that of Abnormals, for their own use. They are responsible for Ashley’s death.”
From Martha’s intake of breath it was clear that she knew things had taken a sudden, unpleasant turn.
Ears still ringing from the near miss, Kevin dove for cover beside his partner, both of them drawing their weapons. Crouching behind another car trunk, Henry pulled out a strange looking gun of his own and Tesla flung up a hand… causing the bullets to freeze in mid-air.
Well, that was actually quite useful.
Henry, not surprised by the sudden lack of deadly projectiles, swung his weapon up and fired… what looked like pulses of energy into the doorway. Then he was up, darting into the building, Tesla on his heels.
Having clear cause to enter, Kevin and Javi followed. “You hit?” Javi asked in a low tone as they passed through the door.
“I’m good,” Kevin replied, though the tinnitus had yet to fade.
The outside of the building couldn’t have looked less like the inside. The walls were stark white and the floors gleamed. The guards who had fired on them lay motionless, slumped on the ground and the detectives quickly checked for further weapons before binding their hands.
Henry and Tesla were a few feet ahead, so they heard Henry order, “Don’t even think about it.
A smirking Tesla was removing weapons from a black clad guard, commenting, “Only 3 of you? Well, that’s fairly pathetic.”
The man glared as Kevin slapped cuffs on him. Eyes lighting on Javi’s badge, he actually snorted, looking relieved. “NYPD? Really?”
“And Sanctuary,” Tesla gloated, watching the man’s amusement vanish. “And your employer is…?”
Looking from Tesla to Henry to Ryan and Esposito, the man seemed to deflate. “Hell, they don’t pay me enough for this anymore. We’re Cabal.”
Back at the Sanctuary’s bat-cave, Henry’s demonstration of his particular brand of Abnormalness had been impressive, but since then he’d been pretty unassuming. Good with the tech and his weapon, but not in a flashy ’look, I turn into a wolf-beast’ sort of way.
Now however, as a loud, angry snarl ripped from his throat, Henry suddenly sounded quite scary. He advanced on the guard, who scurried back, bumping into Kevin in his attempt to get away from Henry. For a moment, he thought Javi was going to make Henry back off, but Tesla was shaking his head, indicating they should stand down.
Hopefully, Henry wouldn’t actually…bite the guy or something. That would be a bitch to explain in the arrest report. Suspect injured when outside consultant chose to restrain suspect…with his teeth.
Yeah, Montgomery wouldn’t like that.
“Cabal.” Kevin could see anger in Henry’s face, muscles shaking and eyes taking on an ominous, gold cast. “How’d you outlast your friends?”
“We’re just a satellite office! Nothing important ever happened here, it’s just storage….” the man babbled fearfully and a door behind them swung open.
“Phillip, what’s…Oh, dear.” An older man in a lab coat froze when he saw them standing there. “Well, this isn’t good.”
“Sir, can you tell us why your security team fired on officers of the NYPD?” Javi asked. Kevin hoped they weren’t going to have to dodge anymore bullets tonight.
Before the man could answer, Henry stiffened. He tilted his head to the side and took a deep breath, eyes locking on the man’s lab coat before muttering, “No….”
Then he shoved past everyone and barreled further into the building.
“Oh look, Lassie’s got a scent,” Tesla quipped, sauntering after Henry without waiting for anyone else.
Damn it! These guys were worse than Feds!
Part 2
Author: kaitlia777
Author's e-mail/website: kaitlia777@yahoo.com
Fandom: Castle/Sanctuary
Summary: Something about this case just screamed ABNORMAL.
Type / Pairings: Don’t want to spoil a surprise!
Main characters: Pretty much everyone’s here!
Rating: R for language
Warnings: A bit of grossness in describing the crime scene
Spoilers: Anything that’s aired in the US is fair game
Beta: N/A
Disclaimer: Don’t own any of the recognizable character, just taking them out to play!
Author's Notes: This fic was prompted by lanna_kitty , who wanted a Sanctuary/Castle crossover.
Since he’d begun riding along with Detective Kate Beckett, Richard Castle had gotten the opportunity to see quite a few dead bodies. Many murdered in unusual, often gruesome ways. He’d thought he was becoming somewhat used to the gore (hell, it was part of his job to come up with horrible and interesting ways to kill people, but seeing it was another thing all together), while still retaining his essential humanity.
Nothing he’d seen or imagined could have prepared him for the crime scene he just followed Becket into.
The first hint that something was wrong should have been the cluster of nauseous looking uniformed officers standing in to hall. There was even a young kid losing his lunch and no one was harassing him about it. Usually, anyone who puked at a scene was mocked mercilessly. It was a cop thing.
Even before stepping over the threshold, Rick found his senses assaulted by the heavy, copper penny scent of blood, lots and lots of blood, mixed with the sickly sweet eau de early decomp.
Frankly, it looked like some kind of a wild animal (or a dozen) had been let loose in the room to savage (and that was the appropriate word) a person. Then perhaps take the time to toss random buckets of blood around, ‘cause damn there was a lot of the stuff visible.
There were chunks of person everywhere, too. Lanie, Ryan and Esposito were inspecting different piles of meat, bone and viscera. Professionals that they were, none of them were getting sick, though Ryan was looking even paler than he normally did and Esposito hopped to the side to avoid being spattered by…yeah, that was an ear. It had been stuck to the ceiling, but had chosen to fall just as the detective was passing under it.
Everyone stared at the offending ear before Esposito breathed, “Man, that’s just wrong.”
“Anyone got an ID on our vic?” Beckett inquired, stepping carefully across the room, on her toes to avoid blood stains.
“Uh, found a hand…Looks a little chewed on, but mostly intact, ” Ryan said, bending over to peer under a low table, “But, yeah, manager said he rented the room to an Erasmo Bullwinkle. I’m thinking that might be an alias.”
“It’s not.” Rick felt his stomach lurch as he stared at the pitiful pile of remains that used to be a person. A man. A man he knew. “He’s an acquaintance. Fellow writer…his genre’s Urban Fantasy though….”
Beckett gave him a concerned look and he nodded, indicating that he was all right. Sure, the gore of the room was even more horrible now that he knew it had come from Raz -- Erasmo’s nickname -- but he knew if he seemed too upset that would mean getting benched.
“Take a look at this,” Lanie murmured to Beckett, crouched beside….oh, that was definitely a head. She was holding something she’d pulled from the pulpy, severed stump that was left of Raz’s neck. As the thought flitted through his mind, Rick winced, wishing he could turn off the voice in his head that always tried to word things like he was putting them down on paper.
Beckett took the object Lanie offered and held it up to a light. “Is that…a tooth?” Ryan asked, scrunching up his face. “Please tell me that’s not a tooth.”
It didn’t look like any tooth Rick had ever seen. It was more of a serrated fang.
“This has to be a weapon,” Beckett said, sounding dubious. “Nothing has teeth like this.”
Nothing normal anyway. “I need some air,” Rick announced, picking his way back out of the room and avoiding the concerned gazes of his friends.
While the fresh air was good, it wasn’t why he wanted out of the room. No, a phone call had to be made and it wasn’t one Beckett and the others needed to know about.
At least, not yet.
“I’m just saying, everyone’s heard about your crazy Bollywood dance number in India. How did you manage that if Wii DDR kicks your ass?”
Kate Freelander asked, giving Will Zimmerman at teasing glare across the passenger area of the Sanctuary’s jet.
His response was to toss his hands in the air and say, “That was the Macri, not me!”
“Still,” Kate said with a sigh, “You could have warned me about your two left feet.”
Looking up from his tablet computer, Henry Foss grinned at her. “You were the one who picked him for your team.”
From his seat by the wet bar, Tesla came out of the brood he’d been in Magnus had disappeared into the cockpit. “Wait, you’re saying Team Furball beat the two of you? Oh, well that’s just sad.”
“The Big Guy can be really agile when he wants to be,” Kate defended her TV buddy, who had stayed behind at the Old City Sanctuary to hold down the fort while the rest of them jaunted off to New York, answering an SOS from a friend of Magnus’s.
At least, that’s what Kate thought they were doing. She didn’t know why the NYC Sanctuary couldn’t handle whatever had happened and Magnus hadn’t explained much, saying she’d brief them on the plane, but her powwow with the pilot had taken precedence.
“Perhaps some innate Abnormal grace explains Big and Hairy’s skill, but what of Tiny Tim?” Tesla smirked, seeming to never tire of tossing short jokes at Henry. While Hank wasn’t the biggest guy around, Kate had never really thought of him as ‘tiny’…and it wasn’t as though Tesla was a giant like Druitt.
Rolling his eyes, Hank said, “Keeping a rhythm is not that hard.”
Huh. Kate knew that expression. Hank definitely didn’t want to tell them something. Glancing around, she saw Tesla and Will take note of this as well.
“Secret past as a rave kid?” Will joked, sharp profiler eyes looking to see if he was on the right track.
Leaning forward, Tesla prodded, “Frustrated yearning to be a ballet dancer?”
That image made Kate giggle, but Hank scowled and sighed. “If you must know, Doc made me and Ash go to a whole bunch of classes when we were kids, trying to socialize us. Dance, gymnastics, music… of course, self-defense was kept in house. And contact sports were out after the Football Incident.”
So much in that statement begged for further explanation. Surprisingly, it was Will who managed to voice his question first. “Socialize you? Trouble at school?”
Hank gave him a look. “Home schooled till we were 12. As you can imagine, we didn’t get out much.”
With a grimace, Kate tried to imagine growing up in the Gothic castle with Magus and Biggie as both tutors and caregivers. The thought was both nice ( she was sure the education was top notch and there would’ve been plenty of affection) and horrible (Oh my God, some of the residents looked like the stuff of nightmares and Magnus probably read them Grimm’s fairy tales, not the Disneyfied versions.).
“Football or American football?” That question was from Tesla, who looked gleeful. “And you must explain the incident or I will hound you mercilessly.”
Casting a pleading gaze towards the cockpit, clearly hoping Magnus would arrive, Henry sighed. “Football. Soccer. Ashley went through a biting phase when she was four.”
A ghost of a smile crossed Will’s face, as he seemed quite capable of imagining Magnus’s daughter taking a bite out of someone on the soccer field.
Before she got her own question out, Magnus chose to reappear, settling down in one of the plush seats and saying, “Sorry for ignoring you all. Now, as I said, earlier today I received a call from the son of a trusted friend. Richard works with the NYPD and happened upon a crime scene that calls for our intervention. . Erasmo Bullwinkle…” she paused when Kate couldn’t quite contain a bark of laughter, “… was murdered quite viciously. I made contact with some of our allies in government and have been assured cooperation from the NYPD. Henry, you should have received a file.”
“Got it,” he replied, clicking at his tablet and cringing. “Guh!”
He turned the computer so they could all view the display of grisly crime scene photos. When what appeared to be a really nasty tooth popped up, Magnus pointed at it.
“I won’t be able to say for certain without a first-hand inspection of the tooth, but I believe that to be the incisor of a Liath, a particularly aggressive but savvy breed of Abnormal who often hire out as mercenaries.”
Hank called up an index of known Abnormals and found an image of a Liath. It was a large being, more or less human looking, though the jaw was distended to make room for the fangs. Its torso was covered in an armor like series of scales, a protective shell around the vital organs, but, if clothed, it could probably pass for a particularly unpleasant looking men.
“Bullwinkle himself was an Abnormal, a Herpandrite. Basically human, but two times a year he’d shed his skin. He was fully assimilated into society, a fairly popular fantasy novelist. At the moment, I have no idea why anyone would want him dead.”
“This friend of yours, Richard? Do you think he’ll be able to help on the scene. Able to keep his people away from our… purview?” Tesla mused. “Not that I care particularly, but you do.”
Magnus shook her head. “Unfortunately, Richard is not a police officer. He’s a novelist, shadowing a detective on whom he’s based a character….”
“Wait. Richard…. You don’t mean Richard Castle?” Will asked and Magnus nodded. “I love his books.”
“What’s he write?” Kate asked, knowing the name sounded vaguely familiar, but unable to place it.
Shooting her disbelieving look, Will said, “The Derek Storm novels. Heat Wave. Naked Heat….Anybody? No? Mystery novels, people?”
Magnus nodded a bit, though Kate was willing to bet she’d never read one of those books. Tesla just raised imperious brow and Hank shrugged. “Yeah, sounds sort of familiar.”
“They’re making a movie out of one of the books, right?” Kate asked and Will seemed relieved by the hint that she and Hank were at least somewhat familiar with the books.
Magnus and Tesla…. Well, let’s just say their idea of pop culture was vastly different than the rest of the world’s. Hers was random, at best and he seemed to harbor a marked distaste for anything that post dated the early 20th Century.
Upon landing in New York, they piled into a large, chauffeured car that was waiting for them. Another ferried their luggage and equipment to Magnus’s home in the city, a lovely brownstone if Kate recalled correctly.
Clearly, they weren’t going to the brownstone. Instead they arrived at the pricy building where Castle lived. Magnus led the way up to the penthouse, though she said she’d never visited before. The posh environment was clearly her element, in a way that Kate had no illusion she could fake.
The door was answered by an elegantly dressed woman in her 60s, who smiled warmly at Helen and said, “My dear, you look as lovely as ever. I’m jealous!”
“Hello, Martha,” Magnus replied, embracing the women, obviously an old friend. “How have you been?”
Martha gestured expressively she waved them in. “Keeping busy,” she said. “I’ve opened a drama school. So that’s keeping me occupied.”
The two women shared a chuckle and Martha sobered to say, “I heard about Ashley and dear James. They will be missed.”
“Yes,” Magnus agreed, in that voice she always used when someone brought up Ashley. Changing the topic, she said, “You remember Henry?”
Hank grinned and gave Martha a little wave and she smiled at him. “It’s been a long time,” she commented, then her grin grew teasing. “Didn’t you turn out well!”
As Hank pinked up and made some polite response, Kate decided she was going to like Martha. “Kate Freelander,” she said, holding out her hand.
“Charmed, dear,” Martha replied as they shook.
When it was Will’s turn, the profiler politely smiled. “Will Zimmerman… and Mr. Lack of Boundaries who is poking around your fridge is Tesla.”
“Nikola!” Magnus chastised the former vampire, but Martha simply chuckled.
“Please, don’t encourage him,” Will moaned, but no one acknowledged her complaint.
Turning toward the stairs, Martha called out, “Richard, Alexis, our guests are here.”
Time to get down to business.
Kate Beckett knew Castle had been behaving strangely (well, even stranger than usual) when he ducked out of the Bullwinkle crime scene. Then he made an excuse to leave the station and now, at 10:15 PM, he called and asked her to meet him at a large brownstone on the Upper East Side.
When she rang the doorbell, it let out an ominous gong and, moments later, the huge doors swung open. Castle was standing there, looking serious and more than a little guilty.
“Thanks for coming,” he said, ushering her into an entry hall that just shrieked understated, old money. “I know you’re busy.”
“Busy waiting on some so-called specialists the governor’s ordered us to cooperate with,” she merely growled, then regretted her anger when he flinched.
At least, she regretted it until he spoke.
“Um, about that,” he said, then led the way further into the house and placed a hand on a wall, opening a hidden door… to a room that did not look like it belonged.
A tall, dark-haired woman stood before a wall-mounted screen, reading aloud the data presented there. Martha was listening with interest as a wide eyed Alexis hovered by a man hunched over a computer, Bullwinkle‘s thrashed cell phone on the desk beside him. A lovely young woman of Indian descent was pacing and yelling into a phone, as was another young man.
“Castle, what’s going on?” she asked, feeling like she was suddenly out of the loop.
She hated that feeling.
“Well, well, well, who is this?”
A man had sauntered out of the shadows, giving her a blatant once over. Kate bristled, ready to deliver a verbal smack down, when the young man with the phone looked up.
“Tesla, would you please…No, you know what? Go ahead and be yourself. I’ve read her file. Maybe she’ll do us all a favor and shoot you.”
“Will,” the tall, brunette with Martha had abandoned the screens and nodded to Kate greeting. “Detective Beckett, I presume. Martha and Richard have spoken highly of both your investigative prowess and your discretion.”
While that was all well and good, Kate was starting to get a little annoyed. Okay, that was an understatement. “Thanks. So, who are you people?”
“Direct. Good,” the woman said. “Tell me, Detective, are you open minded?”
Oh, this was not going to turn out well. Will had seen the tension and annoyance radiating off of the detective from the moment she stepped into the room. She had been unhappy about outsiders getting involved in her case before even arriving and her feeling of unease was compounded by being thrown into the midst of a group of (admittedly) odd strangers.
Tesla being his usual, letchy self wasn‘t helping any, either. Seriously, the more Magnus talked, explaining who they were, what the Sanctuary was and how they were involved with her case, the more Beckett looked like she wanted to punch someone.
It was either going to be Castle or Tesla, Will decided as Magnus summed up the situation.
For a moment, Beckett was silent, then she said, “You want me to believe monsters killed Bullwinkle?”
“Not monsters,” Henry corrected, looking up from the search he was doing on his computer. “Abnormals. And, in this case, a specific Abnormal…though he or she may have been working for someone.”
Beckett blinked at him, then rounded on Castle. “How do you know these people, how do the crazy people have the governor convinced we should work with them, why are your mother and daughter here and… Step off.”
That last comment was directed at Tesla, who quickly changed course and wandered back around the table to hover by Magnus. Will thought that was probably a smart choice on the ex-vampire’s part.
“I know this is a bit much to take in, but, I’m telling you, they are for real,” the author attempted to reassure her, but stepped back under the force of her disbelieving glare.
From across the room, Martha said, “Kate, dear, I’ve known Helen for many years and I can vouch for her and her people…and, as for Alexis, she’s old enough to know about this part of life, I think.”
“Doc, I got a few locations of interest out of Bullwinkle’s phone,” Henry called out, then pointed to something on the screen. “See, that’s how you reconstruct the data from the SIM card.”
“Cool,” Alexis uttered, her interested face illuminated by the LCD screen.
“My contact won’t talk over the phone,” Kate said, angrily ending her call. It always amazed Will, how she could give the impression of slamming a call phone as though it was a hand held. “I need to go meet Twinkie. He sounds like he’s either tweaking or really nervous about what I was asking….”
The doorbell rang and this time Alexis stepped out to answer, knowing it was the other two detectives that Castle had called.
Magnus was already jumping ahead. “Right, Kate, you and Will speak with your contact. Take along a detective or two. Henry, Nikola, the same for Henry’s leads. I have a contact of my own….”
“Hold on!” Beckett said, tossing up a hand to halt the proceedings as Alexis led two men into the room.
The pair looked around, taking in the scene, doing a good job of masking their confusion.
“We have our orders,” she continued, then shook her head, “But, I’m sorry, all this is too much. Monsters and conspiracies…I am not sending my people out into God knows what….”
“We don’t have time for this,” Magnus said, picking up her jacket and glancing across the room. “I assume you will continue to refuse to believe us barring proof. Henry, if you would?”
The tech stopped in the middle of shutting down some program and asked, “What?”
“Beckett, what’s going on?” one of the detectives asked as Magnus turned to Henry.
“These are the people we’re supposed to work with. They’re delusional,” Beckett muttered, making sure to keep an eye on them all. She seemed to think that one of them was about to snap and try to kill someone.
Magnus and Henry were having a conversation without words and, as always, Magnus won. Looking extremely put upon, Henry heaved a sigh and tilted his head from side to side, cracking his neck. “Only partial, no nakedness,” he declared, stepping back from the monitors and waving a finger at the detectives. “DO. NOT. SHOOT. ME.”
Will could never really classify the sound that accompanied Henry’s transformations. From a scientific point of view, he knew that the other man’s bones were breaking and reshaping themselves, muscles stretching and thickening, hair and claws bursting forth. The sound…some deep, instinctive reflex shuddered and the hair on the back of his neck rose..
Like, nails on a chalkboard.
The visual…even a partial transformation, hands and head, so as not to burst out of his clothes, was something really cool to behold. At least, it was cool once you got used to it.
To the uninformed, it was probably pretty damn creepy.
After a minute, Henry shifted back to his normal form and took a breath, rolling his shoulders to loosen sore, abused muscles.
“Proof enough for you?” Magnus asked and Will followed her gaze to those in the room whom had never witnessed a HAP in action. Martha’s brows were raised, Alexis’s eyes wide and Richard…well, he looked impressed and like he was biting back a million questions.
The three detectives, on the other hand, were another story all together. Beckett was blinking, mouth opening and closing silently as Esposito took a step back, hand falling to his gun. Ryan, the youngest of the group, looked only mildly surprised.
Of course they knew who they were going to be working with. It wasn’t paranoia to be overly cautious when someone was usually out to get you.
“So…you folks from the Sanctuary or something?” Ryan asked, curious but not shocked like his colleagues, who turned to gape at him.
Now, it was Magnus’s turn to look surprised. “You know of us? Good. That will be helpful.”
The younger detective shook his head. “Not really. My gran knew a selchie your people helped out of a jam.”
A selchie? Cool. Will had yet to meet one of those. Mostly, they hung out in Ireland, occasionally straying to Scotland and England, so the London Sanctuary handled dealings with them.
As opposed to the general vibe of curiosity in the room, Ryan’s co-workers looked like they could use a stiff drink.
“All right, we’re going to need to work together here, so why don’t we all….”
“Are you a werewolf?” Alexis interrupted, clearly unable to contain herself a second longer.
Henry scrunched up his face in distaste. “We don’t use that term. It’s Class 9 Hyper Accelerated Protean Life Form. HAP, for short.”
“Cool,” Alexis and her father breathed, then the older Castle asked, “Okay, Helen I know, but any superpowers for the rest of you?”
To sooth the frazzled detectives, Will said, “Sorry to disappoint, but I’m just a run of the mill human.”
“Same here,” Kate agreed with a smile.
Of course Tesla had to open his mouth. “I’m currently an ex-vampire with magnetic capabilities.”
Lovely, Will thought with a sigh and stepped forward, a placating smile on his face. Time for Damage control.
This whole case was screwy. From the moment he’d stepped into that blood bath of an apartment, to the high end brownstone (apparently the base of operations for the ‘specialists’ the governor wanted them to work with), to a dude that turned into some sort of monster movie wolf-man hybrid…..
Javi had seen some shit in his day, but this was a whole new level of freaky.
Still, they had a case to work somehow they’d wound up following a lead with the computer tech/not-a-werewolf and snaky Mr. Magneto. The latter of whom had complimented Ryan on his waistcoat then proceeded to let loose a snaky running commentary that hadn’t stopped since they entered the car.
Maybe being super annoying was another of the man’s powers. Glancing into the rearview mirror, Javi caught Henry’s eye and asked, “Does he ever stop?”
The scruffy guy snorted. “This is actually pretty well behaved for him.”
If this was well behaved, then what was he normally like? Exchanging a glance with Kevin, Javi knew his partner was wondering the same thing.
In the backseat, Tesla sneered, “You do know I can hear you.”
“Like that’s ever stopped you from insulting me!” Harry muttered, then one of the seemingly dozens of electronic gadgets he carried beeped. Fortunately, it just seemed to be a phone, as he held it to his ear to speak. “Hello, vriend! Ek wou jouvra oor die Liath jy het in ‘n koshuis? Ishy nog steeds in kontak met sy volk?”
Okay then.
“So,” Ryan asked quietly, turning in his seat to face Tesla, “you guys do this sort of thing often?”
Rolling his eyes, Tesla sighed. “Of late, yes. Heinrich’s been a white hat since Helen plucked him from the moor, but I previously chose to devote myself to my dual passions for scientific advancement and world domination.”
Still conversing with whomever had called him, Henry gave Tesla a dark look. Ryan however laughed and Javi snorted, amused by how dry the man had managed to make that remark.
Their amusement was cut short when Tesla grinned, joined in their laughter and commented, “You think I’m joking! How precious!”
Creepy again.
Hanging up, Henry looked a Tesla and said, “Just for once, stop! That was Marhee from the new Sanctuary in Kimberley. They have a Liath in residence, but he hasn’t heard anything about one of his own hopping the pond.” To Kevin and Javi, he added, “They prefer Europe to the US.”
“Good taste,” Tesla remarked, causing Henry to sigh.
Suddenly, a thought popped into Javi’s head and he had to ask. “Hey, so, are Chupacabras real?”
“Yes,” Tesla replied in a bored tone, looking out the window.
Henry looked up from whatever was beeping now. “Their reps are over hyped.”
Said the dude who could sprout claws and fangs. “We’re here,” Javi announced, never so glad for the opportunity to get out of a car. And that included the time when he was a uniform and had to take in a skel covered in raw sewage.
The address Henry had wrestled from Bullwinkle’s phone looked as abandoned as property records indicated it would be. The windows were boarded up and the fading sign indicated that, at one point, it had been a pet store.
Pulling something that looked like a steam punk Game Boy out of a pocket, Henry let out a low whistle. “What the hell are they doing in there? Power consumption is in-sane!”
“And no one would put a lock like that on a place like this without another motive,” Kev said, waving at the lock as he rapped on the door.
When no one replied, Javi pulled out his phone. “I don’t think we’re going to get a warrant based on….”
Henry squinted at the door then glanced at Tesla. “It’s electro-magnetically sealed.”
The man made a dismissive gesture…and the door swung open, surprising Ryan. “We still need….”
A warrant, probable cause, he might have said either, but was cut off as a bullet whizzed by his ear.
Someone clearly didn’t want them in there.
“How have you been, Helen? Honestly, now.”
Sitting in the drivers seat of her parked car, Helen turned to regard Martha with a sad smile. Her old friend has insisted she accompanied her to meet her contact, Joey Foo Foo. Alexis had wanted desperately to go with one of the groups heading out, but had settled for exploring the Brownstone and its computers when every adult had issued a firm no.
She might be old enough to know some things about the Sanctuary, but she was in no way trained for field missions
“I miss her every day,” Helen said softly, eyes drifting out the window. “When you’ve lived as long as I have, you become accustomed to losing people but it doesn’t get any easier. Ashley… I had no idea it could hurt this much.”
Sympathetically, Martha laid a hand on her arm. “I can’t even imagine,” she murmured and Helen knew her often overly dramatic friend was being very serious, as subject matter warranted.
In some respects, Martha had been lucky, Helen knew. Until recently, the other woman’s child had been far removed from danger, unlike Ashley, who had been raised practically in the line of fire. Safety was one of the reasons it had been decided that Richard was not to know his father, as everyone assumed he wouldn’t be able to resist the intrigue dealing presented by the Sanctuary.
James had followed the boy’s progress though, took pride in the clever mind displayed so well through his novels. But it wasn’t until taking up with Detective Beckett that Richard truly displayed some of his fathers affinity for crime solving. Helen knew James had been pleased as could be upon learning that Richard had begun shadowing the detectives, applying his aptitude to pursuits beyond pure entertainment.
Shaking herself from her reverie, Helen nodded as a figure appeared in the shadowy mouth of an alley. “That would be Foo Foo,” she said, slipping out of the car to get down to business.
“Magnus,” Joey hissed at her from under the cover of his hoodie, red eyes ticking over to Martha. “Thought you’d come alone.”
“She’s a friend,” Helen said, in no mood for dillydallying. Knowing exactly how to get the conversation started, she held up a roll of bills. “Information?”
The red eyes fixed on the money and Joey said, “Raz Bullwinkle. He’s been poking around the community. Talking with the local Abnormals and not always the ones who play nice with your little soldiers. Word is, he got into a long conversation with a Liath, who may or may not have said something about working with a group that used to be a big deal. You know them. The Cabal.”
Helen felt her blood run cold. She thought John had…dealt with the remainders of that particular organization after Ashley’s death.
“The Cabal?” she asked and to tell both Joey and Martha heard the dangerous note in her voice.
“’S right,” Joey explained quickly. “There’s been some noise about a small cell of them left in the city. Just a handful of scientists and a few goons. All I know, hand to God!”
Slapping the wad of money into Joey’s hand, Helen said, “You get double if you can find out where they’re based out of.”
With a nod, Joey disappeared back into the shadows and Helen took a cleansing breath.
“Do I want to know what The Cabal is?” Martha asked as they turned to head back to the car.
Closing her fist, Helen replied, “A large, ancient organization whose goal is to harness power, including that of Abnormals, for their own use. They are responsible for Ashley’s death.”
From Martha’s intake of breath it was clear that she knew things had taken a sudden, unpleasant turn.
Ears still ringing from the near miss, Kevin dove for cover beside his partner, both of them drawing their weapons. Crouching behind another car trunk, Henry pulled out a strange looking gun of his own and Tesla flung up a hand… causing the bullets to freeze in mid-air.
Well, that was actually quite useful.
Henry, not surprised by the sudden lack of deadly projectiles, swung his weapon up and fired… what looked like pulses of energy into the doorway. Then he was up, darting into the building, Tesla on his heels.
Having clear cause to enter, Kevin and Javi followed. “You hit?” Javi asked in a low tone as they passed through the door.
“I’m good,” Kevin replied, though the tinnitus had yet to fade.
The outside of the building couldn’t have looked less like the inside. The walls were stark white and the floors gleamed. The guards who had fired on them lay motionless, slumped on the ground and the detectives quickly checked for further weapons before binding their hands.
Henry and Tesla were a few feet ahead, so they heard Henry order, “Don’t even think about it.
A smirking Tesla was removing weapons from a black clad guard, commenting, “Only 3 of you? Well, that’s fairly pathetic.”
The man glared as Kevin slapped cuffs on him. Eyes lighting on Javi’s badge, he actually snorted, looking relieved. “NYPD? Really?”
“And Sanctuary,” Tesla gloated, watching the man’s amusement vanish. “And your employer is…?”
Looking from Tesla to Henry to Ryan and Esposito, the man seemed to deflate. “Hell, they don’t pay me enough for this anymore. We’re Cabal.”
Back at the Sanctuary’s bat-cave, Henry’s demonstration of his particular brand of Abnormalness had been impressive, but since then he’d been pretty unassuming. Good with the tech and his weapon, but not in a flashy ’look, I turn into a wolf-beast’ sort of way.
Now however, as a loud, angry snarl ripped from his throat, Henry suddenly sounded quite scary. He advanced on the guard, who scurried back, bumping into Kevin in his attempt to get away from Henry. For a moment, he thought Javi was going to make Henry back off, but Tesla was shaking his head, indicating they should stand down.
Hopefully, Henry wouldn’t actually…bite the guy or something. That would be a bitch to explain in the arrest report. Suspect injured when outside consultant chose to restrain suspect…with his teeth.
Yeah, Montgomery wouldn’t like that.
“Cabal.” Kevin could see anger in Henry’s face, muscles shaking and eyes taking on an ominous, gold cast. “How’d you outlast your friends?”
“We’re just a satellite office! Nothing important ever happened here, it’s just storage….” the man babbled fearfully and a door behind them swung open.
“Phillip, what’s…Oh, dear.” An older man in a lab coat froze when he saw them standing there. “Well, this isn’t good.”
“Sir, can you tell us why your security team fired on officers of the NYPD?” Javi asked. Kevin hoped they weren’t going to have to dodge anymore bullets tonight.
Before the man could answer, Henry stiffened. He tilted his head to the side and took a deep breath, eyes locking on the man’s lab coat before muttering, “No….”
Then he shoved past everyone and barreled further into the building.
“Oh look, Lassie’s got a scent,” Tesla quipped, sauntering after Henry without waiting for anyone else.
Damn it! These guys were worse than Feds!
Part 2