Monsters In The Alley

Participants:

brennan_icon.gif leonardo_icon.gif luke_icon.gif

Scene Title Monsters in the Alley
Synopsis A walking microwave comes to at a horrific scene, and then flees into a father, Brennan, and daughter, who take terrified interest in the scene. A more scientifically intrigued man, Leonardo Maxwell, comes along later. The police have yet another body on their hands. Or what's left of one.
Date March 1, 2010

Kenmore Park


The first day of March has a crispness in the air, cold, with some snow, and threats of more. The cloud cover hangs in the above sky, dropping the ambient light down as the late afternoon begins to turn into evening. The sun peaks out from under the clouds, cutting through buildings and casting long shadows. Within one of those long shadows a young man kneels down, with no idea how it is exactly that he got into this position.

The mouth of the alley shows a park, the grass brownish, the trees lacking in sprigs. The metal equipment has more life and color than the what's supposed to be a green area in the city. Grafitti stands out on the brick walls, a faded RISE UP! with a stylized Phoenix among them. Flyers for clubs are plastered on the side. But the floor of the alley isn't nearly as nice. Homeless people likely relieve themselves here, from the cardboard box hidden behind a dumpster, some might even take shelter here…

But whoever lived here, isn't there now. The alley is empty of human life, except for a young man hunched over, eyes open to look at the floor. For him, it's a familiar sight. One he's seen before, even if he remembers nothing following a few seconds ago.

Bubbled, red goo surrounds a folded up form of bones and fragments of clothing. A little hair is visible as well, empty eye sockets. From what's left of the clothes, it's impossible to know if it had been male or female.

Luke Campbell knows what happened. Or at least knows how it must have.

The alley leads to a dead end. The park is the only way out.

Luke wakes up, as it was, and his gaze immediately goes to the pile of… eurgh. Not again. His hand goes up to his head, and he stumbles towards the entrance of the alley, trying to avoid getting anywhere near… whoever that was. NOW where is he, aside from some alley? Shivering, because he left his coat, he looks around furtively, hoping no one saw anything.

Dessandra was beating up her sister, and so, he'd taken her for the day, entertaining her between patients and otherwise giving the nanny a break from playing peacemaker. Besides, he neede to pay a bit more attention. So when free time rolled around, to the park he'd gone with her. Sure it was small, but small was good, less chance of bad shittm happening.

Normally.

Snowmen made, snow angels made and a promise of hot cocoa, Brennan and the three year old were walking hand in hand towards from one end to the other to get to the car. Only Luke came out, sans coat and shivering. Paternal instinct made him shift Dessandra behind his leg, medical instinct made him look over Luke with a discerning eye. SHivering and no jacket, either he's about to go into a nasty case of hypothermia or he's just been out not that long. "Hey. You shoudl get inside where it's warm. You're not dressed for being outside"

Luke sees Brennan and takes a step back, then glances behind him and steps forward again, vacillating between advancing and retreating. "It's not that bad." he replies even as he wraps his arms around himself. "Just misplaced my coat, 'sall."

"Maybe it's smoewhere in there" There's a gesture to the alley behind Luke and as the man keeps going a few steps, he can see into it proper in as much as one can see past Luke and to the dead end. "Really can't be anywhere but there, since that's a dead end" He points out with a casual gesture towards the alley.

So casual until the small girl half behind his leg playing shy suddenly screams like it's nobody's business.

"Ah, no, nothing's there!" Luke hastens to say, but then of course the little girl screams, and he visibly flinches away. "What's the matter with her?!" he exclaims, taking several steps away from the alley as if distancing himself from the place.

"Jesus christ" when he see's the melted remain of a human, his hand automactically pulling his daughter close, clapping a hand over her mouth and two seconds later moving it up to her eyes. "What happened here. Are you okay?" Brennan asks. He's already looking for some place to put his daughter so that he can go into the alley and see if the person is alive. Despite knowing full well that likely, he isn't.

The yell attracted some attention from within the park. They'd not been alone. A woman in a heavy coat with a thick scarf moves closer, to investigate the cries, but doesn't get close enough to see what's going on. Clothing clean, she doesn't look threatening or homeless, but she doesn't ask outloud, either. Most everyone else in earshot seems inclined to ignore it, likely dismissing it as a child throwing a tantrum.

"I don't know what happened there, I just… it was there when I…" let's see, how can Luke explain this? "I don't know anything about this, is it…?" he looks over at the lady in the coat and glares at her, for lack of anything better to do.

Female, females can be trusted. "Ma'am, could you? Just turn her away from the alley please? I think someone's expired in there. The young man found the person and she's already seen far too much. just keep her near please? Her names Dessandra" Relinquishing his daughter who's sobbing now, Brennan makes headway into the alleyway, a glance to Luke. He doesn't know that it's the kid who's staying at the Den yet. "You just found them like this?"

"This is why I hate this area, so many homeless people," the woman complains, probably a little older than Brennan from the wrinkles around her eyes. She kneels down and puts her hands on the girl's shoulders and turns her away. "Nice to meet you, Dessandra, that's a very unique name."

The body is most definitely expired. Melted would be the better term. Even the heavy clothing has been melted in most visible places, leaving it pieced in the goo, barely covering the bones that are the only thing reliably there. The puddle of bloody slush and burn smelling fat covers a large enough area that approaching too close will be difficult without… stepping in it.

"I'm not homeless you old hag." Luke snaps at her, clearly not one for politeness and respect for elders. "I left my jacket at home." he darts a glance towards the alley, then swallows. "What could do that to a person?" he asks Brennan, though… he has a good guess.

Brennan draws up his scarf, bringing it over his mouth so that he can breath and not hurl. Burned flesh is just a smell you never get used to. "Maybe someone who sat too close to a heater, a portable one on full, uhh… to close to a blast, God, they look like .. they look like a piece of plastic left in the microwave too long really but that's not.. right" The physician mumbles on loud enough for Luke to hear, even as he's digging for his cellphone. Dessandra just sobs into the other womans arms, telling her about the puddle in the alley and how gross it is and that someone got attacked by a monster. Three year olds are not so eloquent and everything bad is the byproduct of monsters.

"There, there. I'm sure it was just spilled paint or something…" The woman says, but she looks toward the mouth of the alley, and at the older man and the teen, as if they might really know what's going on. "It'll be fine, dear. Your father is taking care of it."

Luke swallows again. "Microwave, right…" he notices Brennan digging for something, and he looks suspicious. "What are you doing?" he asks, although he flinches when the kid starts screaming about a monster.

"I'm going to call the cops, this is a person, I'm pretty sure it's a person, someone needs to come take care of this" Brennan points out, bringing out his phone and starting to input 911 while putting the phone up to his ear. "Can't let the body freeze in the alley" he points out to Luke before letting hsi scarf drop back around his neck and pulls off his jacket in one great dance of keeping phone to ear and passes it over to Luke. "here, put this on before you freeze to death. When you're warmed up, I'll take it back, at least until we can get you a blanket or something. Dessandra! It'll be okay, i'll call Mommy to come pick you up okay?" There's an apologetic look to the woman who's taking care of his daughter before the 911 call is picked up. "Hey, my name is Doctor Brennan. I need a unit, cops and probably coroner disapatched to Kenmore Park. There's a melted corpse in the alley"

The older woman does her best to keep the young girl close, but what she hears from over 911 makes her eyebrows raise in horror. "It must be an Evolved Homelessman. Killing people. It has to be. They're becoming more and more dangerous." Bigots are everywhere, and they seem to have found one, or at least one who is distrustful, fearful, and accusitory. Jumping to conclusions quickly. Then again, what else is someone supposed to think in this case.

Speaking of freezing… some of the goo has begun to crystalize on the broken pavement near the edge. It's cold enough for snow angels, it's cold enough for frozen goo.

After sizing up a bit of housing for potential mass renovation, possibly a nice large urban mall, Leonardo is walking down the street, heading for his car, with Cassius not too far behind. When he notices the commotion, he stops at the edge of the alley, hmming. The first person he notices, after the corpse, is Brennan. "Doctor." is all he says in a casual greeting, staring at the corpse with more curiosity than anything else.

Now, how does one pay off EMTs so you can get a corpse into a lab?

Luke hesitates, then accepts the coat, using the motion of putting it on to hide his nervous shifting when Brennan calls the cops. Great… cops will be all over this. Probably the media as well. "Yeah, those freaks. Must be." he kinda glares at the lady again, though. Maybe he should melt her face off next? "Homeless people in general need to be gotten rid of. Send 'em all to Afganistan where they can make themselves useful by dying for their country rather than forcing the government to pay out billions of dollars for no reason." not-so-subtle jab at the lady. And great, there's more witnesses now.

"And I'm sure ma'am that the blacks need to sit at the back of the bus" Brennan manages to say to the woman holding his daughter close. "And swim in a different pool or that those who are homosexual should be second rate citizens and denied the rights that those who happen to not be, enjoy? Best not to jump to conclusions of which there is nothing to back up. I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation for everything" He points out. "Besides, I'm evolved as well, and the odds are pretty good that my daughter you're clutching, is evolved as well, since it's a genetic thing. You could be evolved and just one who's ability is dormant and never activates. So I'd please ask that you be more open minded and not blame everything on those with a different genetic sequence. We were all monkey's at some point"

He's a little terse, but it's cold out here and his daughter is likely going to be up all night with nightmares. Enter Leonardo and Brennan recognizes him with a sight. Mr Expensive coat guy. There's a glance to Luke at hsi words as if not sure whether they're sarcastic or not. "Sir, you need to step back. Police and coroners will be here soon" If the lady on the other end of the phone is any indication.

"Excuse me. How often do you hear of people melting in empty alley ways? Never, I'll bet. So unless it is Evolved, what else could it possibly be?" The older woman is certainly insulted, and lets go of the young girl, likely not just because she could be evolved. And then she turns around and starts to walk away in a huff.

"What exactly is going on here?" Leonardo asks as he steps back as instructed, obeying the rules, despite having money. Cassius only whistles as he walks by the alley, but he keeps on going, heading for the nearby car.

Leonardo's head turns to the woman as she walks away. He doesn't say anything, but he does attempt to sense if she has a pacemaker… or at the very least a metal cap in her skull he can cause to stab a sharp needle into her brain. "I'll have to remind myself later to have a cup of German hot chocolate, in honor of this freezing corpse." he idly says to himself, though fairly audible for anyone listening.

"Some guy got roasted." Luke tells Leonardo, glaring after the lady (once more) in dislike for all her evolvedism or whatever. REALLY tempted to melt her face off. Or maybe just give her a hot foot.

Could frankly be a bunch of things. Internal combustion, a heat source that maybe got taken away, could be a great many things and the woman walks off abandoning his daughter. Brennan hurries away from the corpse back towards his daughter with a hand to her back to comfort her and take away the sight of alley from her. "An incident, is what's happened here. It'll be resolved soon, I'm sure." It's the expensive coat guy. Makes him purse his lips. He glances over to Luke. "How you doing kid, heating up? Put your hands in the jacket, under your armpits okay? They look like they're gonna fall off"

"I see." is all Leonardo has to say to their conclusions about what's going on, briefly raising an eyebrow. He might remove his incredibly expensive jacket to help Luke, if he knew he were more than just a cold dirty human. "Well, I trust you're safe, you didn't get attacked or anything?" he asks with a casual glance at Luke.

Luke has a good way of warding off the heat: He just makes things warm up! …of course, he learned long ago when to /stop/ heating up after accidentally ruining outfit after outfit. So, Brennan's coat just gets warm, not melty or anything. "No one was there when I saw it." Luke tells Leonardo truthfully, although he's being kinda insolent about it.

"He's just cold, Nothing I'm sure that getting inside won't fix" Brennan's ignorant really of the possibility that it might have been Luke. He looks fairly innocuous and only missing a coat. Which he hadn't seen in the alley. Probably came from one of the houses from around here. "Hey, dessy, can you talk to me, how you doing? I'm gonna call mommy and she's gonna come pick you up okay? Take you out for some ice cream?" Plan to take you to a shrink after your father has traumatized you. "broooklyns gonna be snowed in" he sighs, anticipating the anger of his wife and listening for the sound of sirens. "Sorry, what's your names again?" There's a glance over his shoulder towards the cobblerized body, all gooey and becoming less goey as time goes by.

"I was under the impression that the weather was finally getting better." Leonardo innocently adds, staring at the body again, sensing any metal, perhaps even keys he can slip out to identify it later. Who knows what a melted body in an alley could mean. "Leonardo Raphael Maxwell, President of Maxwell Development Corporation. I was just in the area, considering building my first mall, but I'm not quite sold on the idea."

In the distance, the first sounds of sirens can be heard approaching.

Luke looks up at the sky and snorts. "Yeah right, not with how the weather's been lately." he takes a few more steps away from the alley, separating himself further from it. "Lu-arry." he fake sneezes to try and cover up the slip. "Larry." after all, he doesn't want anyone attaching him to the crime. Paranoia at its finest!

"You never know. Piss of an atmo and see whether you like the outcome" Brennan points out. With the soudn of the sirens, he's breaking open his phone again, calling up the office and with it, his wife. A quick hushed conversation to let her know it's Kenmore park and to come get their daughter. He'd explain later. "Larry, good to know, call me Harve. We've already met before Mr. maxwell" In another park. On a galaxy far far away. "Probably, you could skip the mall and help out with some of the more destitute areas? There's a project over on Roosevelt Island, called Summer meadows. Could use a well meaning coperation to maybe lend a helping hand"

"Yes, I've got my fingers in the Summer Meadows pot, don't worry about that. This mall is more of a business venture than charity, and a gift to myself so I'll cheer up over Donovan's loss, and a wasted investment." Leonardo begins to walk off in the direction Cassius walked in, yawning as if the situation is starting to bore him. No metal on the body, he'll just have to try and get the body itself from the morgue later… or at least his people will. "I suppose I'll just buy myself a car. Or perhaps new wallpaper, that's always nice…"

There's a lot of metal in the alley, including the garbage can, but nothing on what's left of the body itself. Some smaller metal objects are near the wall, but they could be anything. It could have come from the sludgey body, though…

The sirens continue to get closer, whirling louder. To some, it might even be almost threatening. The police will certainly get here before the wife.

Luke is definitely getting just a tad nervous from the approach of the cops. Slipping out of the jacket, he hands it over to Brennan. "Thanks for this… I think I'm going to go home now. I don't like those damn cops." comes with being a juvenile delinquent.

Leonardo leaves those few metallic objects where they are, possibly deciding it's not worth his trouble, with the cops coming and all. Being questioned is not a favorable outcome at all. He has his own secret murders to worry about. "I'll see you around, Doctor Brennan, and Young Mister Larry. It wouldn't be good for my image to be questioned by police. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a sexy red-headed therapist to track down."

Where the hell has she been, anyway? He simply shrugs his shoulders, and off to his car he goes.

"Take care Mr. Maxwell" he gives a wave, keeping his daughter close then picking her up to comfort her. "I think you need to stay Larry. You were the first to find her, they'll one to talk to you" He points out, even as the sounds of help come closer.

The words cause a greenish tinge to come to Luke's face. "Her… you mean that… that… is, was, a woman?" well maybe Brennan can tell because he's a doctor, not a rocket scientist. "Naw, I'm out of here."

With just bones, it's hard to tell the gender, especially with the half melted fabric and freezing sludge of flesh and blood covering much of the pelvis, would would be the main identifier. But there's a fifty percent chance he's correct, at the very least…

The sirens continue closer, urging the teen to flee more quickly. Before he gets questioned.
"I can't tell Larry, I don't knwo for sure, but I can't call it an it" He moves forward, one arm wrapping the three year old around his torso to try and get his outstretched hand on Larry's shoulder, anchor him here. "Stay. Lest they think you're a suspect larry"

"Fuck that." Luke wrenches away from Brennan and starts walking off. And just in case anyone tries to follow him, he takes a highly convoluted path which includes through buildings to make his way home. Because it's a SEEKRIT.

If Dessandra wasn't in his arms, Brennan night have given chase, but his three year old warrents higher on his list of priorities than chasing after a scared kid. He watches the guy flee, take off before the cops actually start pulling in and he has to look away, wave a hand to the police. "Over here" he offers to them. "I'm the one that called. Listen, there's a jane or a John doe in the alley. Might have been an SLC activation, something, but-" He fades off, gesturing towards the alley, keeping his child turned away while talking.


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