Monday afternoon, Natasha walked out of class with Olivia.

"It's like I have a pact with Satan or something." she grinned. "I bet I could go to like, a church or something and super freak them out. It's called Baal, too."

"Cool." said Natasha, trying not to let her eyes rest on Olivia's low-cut top.

She had glanced at it in class, hoping no one - especially Olivia - had seen, but she figured the rest of the women were probably looking at Olivia, too. She still wasn't sure how she felt about her. Natasha's last relationship hadn't ended well, and she felt no need to rush even in to a sexual one - but she would hate for Olivia to ask & for her to have no yes or no for her. Olivia was likely going to invite her soon to a party where a few of her friends would conveniently leave early. Natasha had decided prematurely to decline any outings with her.

"Mind if I come inside?" chimed Olivia as they stepped up to her & Naomi's home.

'Oh no.' thought Natasha, relevantly. "Um, sure."

Naomi opened the door smiling. "Hey. How'd class go?"

Natasha wondered how Naomi would act if she said anything besides "Good.", and shrugged as the two stepped inside. Olivia had come over the day prior, which had confused Natasha - Viktoria seemed the type of mentor to keep her on a slimy leash. Naomi & Olivia continued their conversations from last week as they sat down, chewing up campus gossip that they digested like a cow & grass and discussing their favorite music. Natasha rarely had any real idea what they were talking about.

"I heard something about that - you know that one chick in Mia's squad who wears that leather jacket all the time? Kinda punk?" said Olivia.

"…Serena? Yeah." Naomi frowned. Suddenly, gossiping didn't seem like much fun.

"People were saying she had to go to Thailand for like - some surgery with her appendix or something. Isn't that weird? I mean, she can heal herself, right? Why would she need surgery?"

Pinned down, Naomi would've always defended Serena's womanhood, even if she didn't entirely understand her transgenderism. She had heard more accurate rumors and hated those that spread them, but she couldn't very well Avalanche-punch everyone whose character it would improve.

Naomi decided to plant one juicier. "Okay, so… she used to be my mentor, and..." She laughed. "She's like, super in to anime and stuff like that - Asian stuff, right?"

"Mmhm." nodded Olivia, leaning in.

"And so she wanted to get a tattoo from like, uh… Like, she thinks that nobody but Asian artists can draw… anime right, right? And she wanted to get a tattoo from someone in Thailand."

"Wait, she has a tattoo? Where? …no. No, you're fucking with me-"

" - I meaaan, I know her girlfriend likes it, but I don't wanna say too much." grinned Naomi, knowing this rumor would bury the rest by the next day. "Uh, but you didn't hear that from me."

"Yeah." grinned Olivia. "Definitely, yeah. So is it - is it like, near her -"

- Naomi's tablet vibrated, and she took it quick.

"Message from Mia… Natasha?" said Naomi, and Natasha shot up.

"I - yes."

"Looks like we've got a contract." chimed Naomi, and Olivia nodded as the three left.

"Bye, Natasha." she smiled, and Naomi was glad her protege was already making friends.

"...soooo, how'd it go with Viktoria?" laughed Naomi, as Natasha hadn't said much over the weekend. Viktoria had given her report to Olivia, who gave it to Natasha, and she read over it last night. "Was she super strict?"

"Um, I think I was kinda overstating how strict she is." said Natasha. If she was alright in her pen, she was probably the best in her class. "She kinda mentioned some stuff in her r-report that I wanted to t-train, um."

"Sure thing." Naomi nodded. "This'll give you more experience, too, right?"

"Right."

As they came up to President Swarm's office, Naomi saw a man leaving, glad he didn't even look her way as he walked past. Urasaria's men usually only paid her any attention to try to fill her tracksuit with themselves. It seemed an unfortunate fact to her that her sole crush likely didn't even think sexually about women - Matoi would've backhanded him in to last Tuesday for it.

"C-Come in." coughed Mia inside, and the two sat down.

Natasha had heard about her through rumors & Naomi. She had a strong desire to match Meteorology to Worldwide's strength, fantasizing about people disrespecting her & becoming fearful when they realized who she was.

Mia coughed in to her sleeve. "I-I'm sorry, I'm a little under the weather. But, I have a contract for both of you, and, and another pair."

"Cool." nodded Naomi, sitting up. "What's up?"

"There - there was…" Mia's eyes closed, and she took a gallon of coffee from underneath the table, drinking it as her scarabs heated it. She took her coffee Blackburn. "...s-sorry. But there - there was a… investigation in… Outford. They're investigating a ring of jewelry thieves, and…" Her eyes barely opened.

"…um, we'll - I'll get more information when we get there." chimed Naomi. "And a second pair, right?"

"M-Mmhm. I-I already chose - will you be alright with Viktoria and Olivia?" said Mia and Naomi paused.

"…um, sure, yeah. I'll let them know, don't worry."

She barely wanted to work with Viktoria, but from what she'd heard from Serena, Mia slept in her office most nights and had fallen asleep in the middle of a mentor & protege dispute yesterday - Naomi wouldn't have wanted to put more on her even if she could.

◆◆◆

Within the hour, the four set out to Outford, but found the detective flustered as they came in to his office.

"…er. Do the four of you need something?" he said.

"We're here regarding the jewelry thieves." said Viktoria as he sat down.

"All four of you? That's…odd. We were told Wraith would be here, but… well. If - if the four of you are here now, then - then that's what we'll work with."

Naomi frowned. "Di-"

" - get to it, then." said Viktoria, sitting up. "What are you investigating?"

"…yes. Give me a minute to collect my thoughts." he muttered, and after a minute: "…well, yes. Like you've said, we've been investigating a potential ring of jewelry thrives - gemstones and the likes usually, actually. Diamonds, emeralds, sapphires. We're still not sure whether it's well-timed coincidences or something deeper. Every time we manage to - if they're not a host - any time we manage to catch a fence, thief, a courier or someone else involved in it, they'll tell us a few names, but it all ends up in a dead end eventually. It's unusual for a ring - or a chain, really - to go that long without at least a few leads as to who's running it. We thought maybe - well, clearly - some sort of blackmail is at work here. It's not usual that not one person will rat out whoever's at the head of it."

He continued. "Recently, there were a few officers who were trying to arrest one of the leads that we had - a fence by the name of Emil Parker. Their funerals are next week - he had a Revenant."

"Do you know where he is now?" said Viktoria.

"He worked at a dockyard, not too far from here. We were wanting to go down ourselves - before I requested a, a student to come down - but most of the people working there are undocumented. Illegals. As soon as one of us shows up, they'll all scatter. We were hoping they might like Urasaria students better - you types tend to be better liked than us."

"Because we just deal with Revenants?" said Olivia.

"Well, and a few other reasons, clearly." he nodded to Naomi.

'Why the hell is she wearing make-up?' thought Viktoria. 'Her and Olivia. The most work she does some days is applying her eyeliner.'

"We'll ask around at the docks, then." said Viktoria.

He nodded, pulling a picture of a man out from his drawer. His blond hair covered a tattoo of a whale. "It's Port Outford. Ask around about Emil Parker."

"We will."

Viktoria took it and the four walked out.

"…uh, what was with the stuff about Wraith?" said Olivia.

"Yeah. Did Mia misassign us?" said Naomi, and Viktoria shook her head.

"Of course not. President Swarm is a professional."

"…she did look pretty tired." muttered Olivia.

"Even if she were, she would have realized her mistake immediately. It's an error on their part. Civilian police can't manage anything larger than a house of dolls. They fire anyone who scores well on an IQ test."

Fortunately for Natasha, Urasaria hadn't required one.

"Olivia and I will investigate around the docks - there's no reason for all four of us to be there, and it is safer." said Viktoria, then looked at Naomi & Natasha. "You two will stay on watch. I'll notify you if anything comes up."

Naomi frowned. Her & Serena had worked with Viktoria & her mentor before, and the Russian (actually from Belarus) had acted like this back then too, taking responsibility for everything she had no business over. She would've been fine splitting it up the same way regardless, but alright! Hopefully Viktoria's arrangements would somehow fail and she could throw it back to her as an example of her poor leadership.

"Fine. I'll go get us a hotel."

"That would be good." said Viktoria, and she checked her tablet once the two went across the street. "Ten minutes. We can walk there."

"…what was with that detective, anyway?" said Olivia as they started walking. "Did you see the way he looked at Naomi?"

"If she doesn't enjoy attention like that, then she can stop dressing for it." said Viktoria. "I will never understand why you gussy yourself up like that and get mad when men react precisely how you want other women to."

'Did she just fucking say gussy?' thought Olivia, relevantly. "Uh, there's such a difference between attention and just being creepy."

"Yes, the difference is whether it's from a man or a woman."

When Viktoria was sixteen, her Revenant had activated, and it was a point of frustration that her attraction to men had begun slipping ever since. Not once had she made any attempt to connect with Urasaria's lesbian community, though she had attempted to date a man in her first year and left him flustered at her impotence. If this sexuality was what women around Urasaria often made the focal point of their lives, to hell with it.

Olivia wanted to say Naomi was straight, unfortunately for her, but didn't think it'd be right outting her. By now, she had learned to tune out whatever Viktoria was ranting about today. It confused her how a woman, let alone a lesbian, could side almost preferentially with men in their views and behavior - Olivia would trust any lesbian over even the best men she knew.

Ten minutes later, they stepped up to the fence at the start of the docks. Viktoria kept her badge prominent as they climbed over and in to the shipping yard. Near the back row of the shipping containers facing the sea, they found a young Mexican smoking a cigarette, momentarily startled as the two came up.

"I'm not here to deport you." she said. "Have you seen this man?" She showed him the picture. "Part of an ongoing investigation."

He frowned. "I'm here legally, for one. Secondly - I've seen him around here, but I don't know who he is."

"Do you know anyone who would? Someone who hired him?"

"…I started seeing him around here a few… few months ago, I think. As for who hired him, I assume that would be…that would be Jeffrey, our manager. I don't know where he is or if he's here today. Probably off visiting his mother again if he's not, if I had to guess. I swear she's in the hospital just about every week."

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Olivia thought he was bizarrely articulate for a man who, by the looks of him, did as much work with his hands as Natasha. Unbeknownst to her, he had a Masters in Literature.

"Do you know what hospital?" said Viktoria.

"I don't, no. I don't think there's too many around here, though."

Viktoria heard someone yelling in another part of the docks, and in the next instant -

- a wave of water swarmed the docks and left the concrete wet; right hand turning to slime, Viktoria swept her hand in to the puddles -

- and felt a thousand of microscopic teeth stick in to her slime -

- but a thousand holes opened up in her arm and let them pass right through her; beside, Olivia was stomping her feet in the water -

" - are Baal's tendrils keeping you safe?" said Victoria, scooping up their legal man & setting him on a nearby shipping container -

" - uh - I think so, yeah -" winced Olivia, and Viktoria nodded: no time to waste, the two started rushing towards the source of the yelling, shipping container at their left, and as they turned the corner -

- they saw a man laying in pieces fifty feet away, no sight around but of something slithering in the ocean at their right as they kept their rush going to his mangled corpse. The sea rumbled as a shockwave of water burst out of it and shot towards them -

- and Viktoria melted to liquid for the next instant scene at her side.

" - Baal!" shouted Olivia, yanking her knife out and carving a pentagram in her arm, and in the next instant -

- demonic laughter escaped her wound as a grotesque maw burst out of her vein, swallowing the water up & retreating back once it was done eating. Another three waves of water came, Baal consuming each with Viktoria still liquid below, thirty feet separating them and the ocean ahead, lips forming out of Otstoy's slime below.

"He can't see us." they said, Olivia trying not to look down. "Be ready."

Ahead, the water rumbled and shuddered, and in the next instant -

- an orca breached the surface and flew towards Olivia, enormous maw opening to greet her -

- but one Otstoy-punch sent it flying behind her and in to the shipping container, killer whale screeching as broken metal pierced through its blubber as it rolled & rolled for hundreds of feet. Viktoria reformed and the two rushed in pursuit, Olivia's devil worshipping wounds healing as they ran -

" - note the liquid changing." muttered Viktoria, feeling her boots change traction in the watery trail - " - this isn't water now."

"I - okay, but -" said Olivia, and in the next instant -

- the oil at her feet hardened in to solid blubber, deposits of fat trapping her boots to the ground; Viktoria slipped out of it as Olivia thrashed beside -

" - strength!" shouted Viktoria; nodding, Olivia slit a pentagram -

- and one demonic fist punched the solid blubber and sent a hundred cracks in to it, shooting down towards their killer whale foe still laying 100ft away -

- but it rolled with the speed of an orca back as it saw Otstoy's slime dripping in to the cracks, blubber melting back to oil to keep her trick from working, fins & whale features retreating as he transformed back to human. He tried to get up so fast he nearly fell on his face, but came up running away the second time towards the ocean again, two women in pursuit 100ft behind through a floor of shattered shipping containers.

"Give it to me." said Viktoria, and Olivia carved a pentagram in to her mentor's arm -

" - uh, it's pretty st-"

- ahead, their foe leaped towards the water -

- just in time for the keen end of a sheet of metal to slice his legs off in a geyser of crimson; Viktoria heard something gurgling as his torso skid off in to the water, and she shouted for Olivia to stay back as she leaped in to the water after him -

- and in to the ocean she sank down with the concrete wall at her back, lungs adjusting as slimy gills formed on her torso, limbs turning to solid slime but ready to liquefy at any second. The orca was 300ft away from her and ahead with nothing but a bloody pulp left for a tail. Oil dripped down its back and formed a new tail of only blubber, and as it swung it at her -

- a weak shockwave of water shot towards her; her right arm hardened further as she swung it forward -

- and the two shockwaves dispersed each other, Viktoria with slime-eyes sharp as it charged towards her; a jet of water erupted from its head & towards her -

- but caught nothing but a hole in her slime-torso for its efforts; 100ft separating them, a shockwave of water blasted him in to her -

- and her body slammed like a pancake of slime against the wall of concrete; groaning as she reformed, she saw it swim back and start another charge -

- but the next scene was instant. Spikes formed at the back of her legs as she kicked against the wall -

- and in to the slits of her own design she melted, orca catching nothing but concrete in its face above, and in the next instant -

- one slime-fist from below ripped his tail clear off in a geyser of blood. It let out a noise like it was going extinct as Viktoria reformed on its back, one slime-fist bashing its back and another digging near its eyes -

' - where the hell are its eyes? It's obviously not the white part of it. Clearly for intimidating predators. Well, it didn't work.'

It thrashed and bucked as she held on tighter, shockwaves erupting all around her, and as it threw its body up -

- it threw her with the strength of a thousand up & out of the water -

- but as it felt the slime lasso tighten around its neck, it was doomed & knew it; Viktoria yanked hard as soon as she hit the docks again -

- and yanked it out of the water & slammed that son of a bitch so hard in to the ground it left its teeth in the concrete and its eyes nearly popped out of its head. It couldn't even scream as it turned back in to a human corpse.

"Niiiice." grinned Olivia at her side.

Viktoria caught her breath and she checked his corpse. A puzzled frown tugged her brow down as she found an emerald underneath him. "…bizarre."

"What's up?"

"He had this on him." She showed it out.

"…uh. That's probably one of the stolen gems, right?"

"…presumably. I will call Natasha and Naomi."

Olivia nodded, eager to see her muscular eye candy again.

How a woman that attractive had no girlfriend coming in to Urasaria, she couldn't understand how - but if it was from some defect in her personality, no matter, she would fix it anyway. If she waited for perfection, she'd end up alone with her teeth soaking in a glass of water.

Ten minutes later, Natasha & Naomi showed up, and Viktoria relayed their fight.

"Keep this safe." said Viktoria, handing the emerald to Natasha.

"O-Okay." she nodded, looking to Naomi.

Naomi took it with her flesh arm & set it in a stone case over her left arm, wondering why the hell Viktoria disliked her so much. She already dealt with enough from lesbians in their class who saw her as the personification of the oppression they suffered back home and could take vengeance on now.

"See if you can find the source of it." said Viktoria. "Olivia and I will deliver this body to the coroner personally - the morgue isn't far from here."

◆◆◆

Naomi called up one of the few jewelry stores still left standing in town. With a little difficulty & a call to Urasaria, the owner verified they were students and arranged to meet with them in his shop fifteen minutes later. He closed up for the day and was standing at the counter with his loupe when they came inside.

"Go ahead." he said, and Naomi handed him the emerald. "You said this was part of an investigation?"

"Yes. We found this on somebody with a Revenant. Would you be able to… track it?"

His eyes lowered to it. "…I may be able to, yes. There's… small particularities with manufacturers. There's not many stores around here, anymore - someone's been buying most of them up, but…" He examined it with his loupe. "…twenty carats. Quite a nice find."

"Isn't that pretty pure?" said Natasha.

"No, but good question. Karats is for purity of metals. Carats is for weight of stones." He frowned. "…it's possible this is mine, actually. There was a recent shipment - a small shipment - I received, that had one item missing. You said you found this on, er, someone with a Revenant?"

"A host, yeah. It's from here?" said Naomi.

"Well, it was meant to be, at least. He must've stolen it before… well. Some point before it arrived here. Most emeralds come from mines over in Colombia or Brazil and are cut before they're shipped here. There used to be a student who helped deliver these things, I remember. She wore an eyepatch. She stopped coming a few years ago. She usually had her - I suppose it must've been her protege with her. Or her girlfriend."

"Did you remember her because of the eyepatch?" said Natasha.

"No, I remember her because of her voice. It was very unpleasant. It sounded like birds being burned alive in a shoebox."

"…uh, back to the jewels." chimed Naomi, relevantly. "You said it's been going on for a while, right?"

"Over the past few shipments, yes. I thought it was just an error on their part - but it kept happening enough that, well, I reported it to the police…"

Naomi nodded, trying to think of Kate. "Um, who did you buy it from?"

"Magdalene Stones. They're an international corporation - I would be very surprised if it were on their account."

"When were you supposed to receive it?"

"Last Monday."

"…right." muttered Naomi. "Mind if we keep it for evidence? We'll come back if we have any more questions."

"If I'm still open by then." he muttered, handing the gem back. "I hope you women can find whoever's responsible for this. It's already hard enough running a business like this - none of you young people buy diamonds or anything like that anymore, and I even read recently most of you can't even afford an engagement *and* a wedding ring. Probably why the divorce rate is so high. There's people coming by every day with offers to buy me out. I'm starting to think of throwing the anchor to them."

"Um, we will." nodded Natasha, comprehending less than none of it, and in the next instant…

- a masked woman crashed through the doors in a rain of glass, rolling up to her feet as she landed thirty feet away; Avalanche formed as Naomi shouted for the owner to run through the door behind the counter, and the two & one started to circle with a circular display of jewelry between them. Naomi stomped down and the spike of concrete missed the woman by an inch, but a concrete hand flew out & slammed her face in to the glass with a sickening smash.

Blood covered the jewels, but the maskwoman wasn't easy. She swept her hardening arms through the glass and raised her aim. Shards of glass ejected out and flew towards Naomi, but a swift wind sent them back to sender; her chest turned to rubber and made them ricochet back and Avalanche's arm took a dozen hits. Naomi ripped out a curse as she peeled off the top layer of her stone arm, pressing Natasha back as the maskwoman vaulted up to the broken case and made a rush towards her.

Glass was sticking to the woman's legs, but Naomi knew something was wrong with how she was gonna body-slam her. The woman leaped off the case, but a puff of pebble dust hit her eyes as Naomi curved left & watched her hit the ground shoulder-first. Naomi smashed her back in with a kick that turned her over twice and her boots would've snapped her neck if she didn't keep rolling, and she snapped up against the wall with spines like a glass hedgehog growing.

Naomi stepped up ten feet away and watched her closely, flesh fingers taking the emerald out of her own left arm. She threw it to the side and the woman grunted, rushing at her. Naomi caught a spiked stinger on the cheek and staggered under a hook that would've ripped her face in half, then bashed her foe with a stone left that slammed her against the wall.

A puff of pebble dust blinded the woman and Naomi rushed her, but she was the fool this time. The woman swept around her with ten fingers on Naomi's waist and if she hadn't kicked out in time the suplex would've broken her neck. Naomi hit her with a smack that threw her through another glass case and she turned just in time to see her pull her face out. Her lips filled with rage as she surged towards Naomi.

Naomi got her feet under her in a hurry. She braced against the wall and kicked out with a leg that folded her foe like a jackknife, and when she screamed Naomi brought her knee up and bent her nose crooked. The woman staggered away, blood dripping down her neck. She eyed the other wall and started rushing towards it.

Naomi thought she was going for Natasha, but the maskwoman hit the wall and bounced back like a loaded spring at her; the next thing she felt was the breath escaping her neck as the maskwoman chokeslammed her to the ground and pinned her to the floor, nails digging in to her neck.

Naomi's left was trapped, but her right was free.

A pebble appeared underneath her right and she flicked it so hard that the bitch's kneecap shattered like a plate; she fell off of Naomi and Naomi slammed her in to the floor with a loud thud. Rings of concrete burst out of the ground, wrapping around the woman's arms, but her body was slipping and she bucked Naomi off; her body slipped out. Naomi clutched her head as her foe leaned back against the wall, and Naomi caught a boot to the stomach that threw her against another glass case whose shards sliced a few hairs off her head when it broke.

She made a gesture to Natasha as the woman rushed towards her, and as her stone fingers snapped, a hole peeled open in the floor. The woman couldn't see what was bubbling before a jet of lava burst out and melted her mask to her face, and an Avalanche smack nearly popped one ear out the other as Naomi slammed her to the floor with her flesh arm. The next thing Natasha saw was Naomi's stone fingers wringing the woman's neck until she went limp and she turned back dripping sweat.

"…good." panted Naomi, wiping her face with a few Flickendecke patches. "Sorry, I - I know you were worried about hurting me, but - good job." She stood up. "Let's ... let's get her Revenant removed and bring her back to the cops, right?"

"Um, can't we just torture this chick?" Natasha winced. She was starting not to like this sudden desensitization, either.

"I - I don't torture." said Naomi. "That's - no. That's not something I'm ever, ever going to do."

"Sorry."

Naomi nodded. "Just - we'll make sure she gets her Revenant removed, okay? That's how we're going to do things. No torture."

Some mentors, like Mia initially, saw their proteges as immature teenagers who needed to be taught control & adulthood. Naomi accepted her job as what was essentially a hired killer, but hoped to bring Natasha over to her way of not prolonging pain. This made her as different from Kate & Serena as molasses & vinegar, who killed as the same type of entertainment that had led lions against gladiators centuries ago. Little wonder was it that they often had the biggest boxes of fanmail.

The morgue was fifteen minutes away walking. Naomi hailed a taxi and the driver didn't make any fuss about the unconscious body in the back seat. Once they pulled up to the morgue, she paid extra for the cleaning as they got out.

Olivia opened the morgue's door before they did.

"Did you get someone too?" said Naomi and Olivia's head shook as the two stepped inside. Viktoria was on the other end standing over the coroner's corpse and a second one was laying on the table. Someone had been rooting around hard in the second's chest.

"I - what the hell happened?" said Natasha.

Viktoria crouched down. Something was written in blood next to the coroner's corpse. "Someone killed him after we dropped the other man off. Olivia thought she forgot something back here."

"I didn't." she muttered, relevantly.

Naomi frowned. "…looks kinda like the host we were fighting, actually. She tried to break my neck too."

"Hand her over, then." said Viktoria, glancing back. "Give me some time alone with her."

"No." said Naomi. "We're getting her Revenant removed and handing her over to the cops."

"What, so they can shine a bright light on her in a dark room to try to make her talk?" Her head shook as she stood up. "Give her over -"

" - I'm not fucking torturing her - and I'm not letting you torture her, either."

"You have a very high opinion of somebody who was trying to kill you."

"No, I just think that doesn't give me - or you - the right to treat her like she's some fucking slab of meat."

"I agree with Naomi." said Olivia and Viktoria sighed.

"I'll never understand why someone will kill but not torture. As far as I know, no one has ever come back from being killed. Plenty of people have come back from being tortured. What's a crueler fate?"

"I'm not fucking budging on this." said Naomi.

"Clearly." said Viktoria. To her, the law gave no reward for morality. She crouched over the corpse, wondering if the next one would convince Naomi better. "Regardless, he left a message as he was dying - conveniently. Likely initials. V.S.."

Naomi stepped over, Avalanche carrying her unconscious cargo like a slab of meat. "…uh, wait. Are we sure that's his handwriting?"

Viktoria frowned. "…a good point. Olivia, find something in his handwriting. Check his desk."

"Phew." muttered Olivia, glad she hadn't had to check the corpses' toe tags. She went over and checked his desk, pulling a sheet out and giving it to Viktoria, whose head shook.

"…correct. It's not in his handwriting. Quite a stark difference."

Behind Viktoria, Natasha saw Naomi give Olivia a knowing glance. "Um, there's still the - the second corpse, too."

"Yeah." said Olivia. "They still left his Revenant, though."

"He was looking for something else, then." said Viktoria. "Natasha, do you have the gemstone?"

Olivia noted she took the word "Natasha" in her mouth with the same tone she usually did and felt a little jealous.

"Um, Naomi does." said Natasha.

"Good. We'll call the police - they can keep it in evidence."

Naomi nodded and called the police before Viktoria could. A few minutes later, she heard sirens outside. "Guess that's them."

"As on time as you can expect." shrugged Viktoria, opening the door for a cop & the detective, only the former wincing at the gore as they stepped inside. A cleanup crew came in as Viktoria relayed it to the detective, and he mused a while.

"You mentioned a name he wrote down?" he said.

"It wasn't in his handwriting - it's a trap, presumably."

"Ah." he muttered. "We'll take it from here, then. See if we can't get something out of your… friend, here."

◆◆◆

Mia woke up that night with her head on her frozen desk, yawning as she unfroze her tablet.

"…not again." she muttered, pillow of ice scarabs forming. "…3:28…contracts… mmhm." Her eyes closed. "Jewelry thieves to Tuyuan, and Naomi had…"

Her eyes opened, and she groaned as she checked her tablet.

"…I'm going to fucking kill you."