The Syndicate

[Gafe]

"-The evidence is almost irrefutable, your honor. This man was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but how many times have we heard this as a coincidental excuse? Too many, for my taste. How many times has this excuse been valid? Something around four percent of the times.
"The body of this woman, this Wendy Carver, presents murder of the highest degree. What excuse does this man, this Ezekiel Young, present? 'It wasn't me'. That's a relief, wouldn't you all say? If he accepted the blame, he'd be insane and not only would jail be his destination, but a mental facility too. But it was him." Saul cleared his throat, and started complimenting his speech with hand gestures. The crowd was eating from the palm of his hand.
"Let's summarize, shall we? We have a witness who saw how Ezekiel slit the poor woman's throat, even if the witness fled the scene afterwards, we have, as exhibit 3, a jacket that fits this man's body that has Wendy's blood all over. From here, we can deduce the mutilation was also caused by him."
"That's-That's not true!" Ezekiel blurted out.
"Silence, Mr. Young, let the man proceed." Perfect, even the judge was mesmerized by his speech.
"Thank you, your honor. As I was saying, even the man's profile and background fill the position of a man derranged enough to mutilate and assassinate a young woman. A drug addict with an abusive father and an absent mother. It's a cliché." He laughed.
"Still, I wouldn't advise for the man to get the full punishment of the law. Let's remember that Wendy wasn't the best of citizens. She was a prostitute of the lowest class. Who knows? Maybe she got what she deserved. But that's anyone's guess." Saul Luna headed to a chair and sat back.
A dumb man who fancied himself a lawyer tried to protect Young, he was an honest man at least. In his office, he watched a screen as the rest of the court proceeded. The jury left and returned, announced Ezekiel as guilty and the judge gave him capital punishment. To the rest of the court, he was a hologram. They jury was too, and sometimes the judge was also. The benefits of technology.
As the court ended, Saul turned off the screen and went to sit in his favored chair of the meeting room. He dared to feel sympathy for Ezekiel, he was not guilty, Valentine was, but he still needed to cover for him. He reckoned the assassin wasn't the best partner he'd ever had. On the other hand, Wendy was one of Rosalie's girls. He'd saved her from a major lawsuit a while back. Saul always remembered a client.
How unfortunate, he'd put his career and reputation at risk to save the backs of both Rosalie and Valentine.
"Irene, call Rosalie and 'Mr. Wright', tell them I won't attend the planned dinner. Invent some excuse, I'm sick, or my grandmother died, be creative. I am in NO mood too see either of them."

[Eva]

"What do you think this'll accomplish?" Missy Carter asked her partner as he sped down the highway towards their destination. "For one thing, it'll narrow down suspects. Second, it'll get us into the head of someone who's done this exact thing." Marcus replied. They'd both heard, and read, about the conviction of Wendy Carver's murderer, and considering the similarities between her murder and that of the girl they had found, it was simply too coincidental. "Who's the lawyer?" Missy asked. "Saul Luna. I've worked with him twice, he's good." Missy smiled. "So we've got a foot in the door." she said.

"Hello Irene." Marcus said genially to the secretary that sat before Mr. Luna's office. "Detectives Green and Carter. Tell Mr. Luna that we're here to discuss the murders of Wendy Carver and Nadia Chelyabinsk." he said. Not two hours ago had Missy received the identity of the girl they had found, mutilated, in an alley. Based on pictures, she had been a nice-looking kid.

[Vale]

Cyrus picked up the phone again.
"I'm getting tired of all the bacon being shoved through my phone Lieutenant." He barked through the phone.
"Mr. Luna has informed us that your meeting with him is canceled. Apparently when you sliced up Wendy, you left her in a pretty tough spot. He pinned the case on someone else though."
"Did you make sure that they published the story in the papers? And threw pictures of the girls from before?" Cyrus asked inquisitorily.
"I thought you were tired of the Bacon?" The officer replied snidely.
"Depends, I like cutting out tongues just as much as Cops thighs. So answer me. Did they?"
"Exactly to your orders...Detective Treybore. I want you to know, we're keeping a close book on where these women of yours are being kept. 2nd Street Morgue."
"I'll be there to see who comes in and visits them. They were ladies of the night, they have no family, maybe friends...hooker folk. Regardless....if someone I recognize comes there...we'll have our lead." Cyrus spoke, hanging up the phone.

He was on his way to the 2nd Street Morgue.

[Eva]

Rosa pulled on a white jacket over her freshly ironed white dress and examined herself in the mirror. She didn't look a day over 19, much to her great relief. Never one to be insecure about her age, Rosa still championed the belief that one should strive to look as young as they could. Not vanity, never vanity. Just cautious about her appearance.

After making sure that her windows were locked(not that it mattered, considering how high up her apartment was), Rosa dashed for the elevator and checked her cell phone again. Several new messages, of course. She patiently answered each one as she furiously pressed the Down button, not wanting to show up late for her appointment at the city's morgue. And then she stumbled upon Asher's message. Grinding her teeth, Rosa pounded out an angry reply:

"Send me ONE MORE lewd message and I'll cut off your head- and I DON'T mean the one on your shoulders.

Love, YOUR BOSS"

Just as Rosa hit the Send button, the elevator gave a ding noise and startled her, causing her to drop her phone. After picking it up, Rosa put it in her jacket pocket and entered the elevator, not remembering that she had one message left after Asher's- from Mirage.


"Look, I know you got my friend here so just cut the bullshit and let me see her body." Rosa smacked a stick of chewing gum loudly and tossed her blonde hair, giving a very impudent image to the morgue attendant she was haranguing. "Wendy Carver. W-E-N-D-Y C-A-R-V-E-R. Me and her were like this, best buddies or whatever the fuck." she said, using her mastered Russian accent to drive the point home. "And what's your name, miss?" the attendant asked wearily. "My name? My name is FUCK YOU, kid!" Rosa shouted. "Whatever, the name's Ava Burlachenko. If you don't know how to spell Ava then you're a fuckin' retard but I'll spell my last name. B-U-R-L-A-C-H-E-N-K-O, Bur-lah-chen-koh." she said, placing heavy emphasis on every syllable.

The attendant led Rosa to the cold morgue room where Wendy's body was being kept. He showed her the covered table on which the now dead girl laid. Rosa looked over at him and and glared. "What, can I have five fuckin' seconds to pay my goddamn respects?" she shouted. The attendant shot her a glare back and shuffled away. When the door slammed shut, Rosa pulled a Kleenex from her purse and held it against her eyes to stem the tears that came forward. With a shaking hand, Rosa tugged the sheet off of Wendy's body and immediately regreted her decision. She hunched over and held a hand over her mouth as she read the message inscribed on the girl.

No doubt, this was meant for her.

Rosa was exiting the cold morgue when she ran into someone, a startled redhead. "Cynthia?" she whispered, dropping her fake accent. Cynthia, a light-skinned girl of seemingly Irish heritage, paled immediately. "Miss Rose, you gotta get out of here." she whispered, even lower and more terrified than Rosa would have expected. "Cyn, just tell me what's wrong." Rosa said, keeping her voice low as she lead Cynthia outside. "Miss Rose, I gotta skip town. A bunch of us girls got together and we're all real grateful to you for EVERYTHING you've done for us, we haven't been drugged or got the shit beaten out of us since you hired us but this is some fucked up shit." Cynthia said, her voice and indeed her whole body trembling. "Diane, Wendy, Nadia, and we know they aren't the only ones. Miss Rose, I don't wanna die." Cynthia pleaded. Rosa laid her hand on Cynthia's shoulder. "Nobody's going to die, Cyn. Come with me back to my apartment, we'll order something nice and maybe some wine, calm you down a little. Everyone should just take the night off and cool off. Come on." Rosa gently pulled Cynthia to her car, with the latter staring at a familiar-looking car. She shook herself and followed Rosa.

[Grimn]

Guilford entered the elevator and began the slow journey upwards. A small vibration in his coat pocket alerted him that he had received a text message. He reached in and withdrew the small phone. This was unusual as Guilford almost never received a phone message or call, far too easy to trace and it essentially amounted to physical evidence. He read the short message and shut the phone. “So Neve has taken a leave of absence” thought Guilford. The elevator dinged softly as it arrived at Guilford’s private floor. He walked out and into his private quarters. As soon as he entered however he noticed a message waiting for him. Guilford pressed the button and was soon created by the voice from his senior Acolyte. “Sir after further investigation we have found a connection between Mr. Valentine and a one Saul Luna. Luna is a powerful lawyer that oversees a majority of the cities high profile cases” said the Acolyte. Guilford heard the message and soon walked over to a large rose bush that grew in a corner of one of the rooms on his floor. He picked up a pair of shears and cut a small black rose from the bush and placed it in his lapel. He brought up a small computer screen and sent a message to his Acolytes. “Inform Rosa of where I will be. Keep me updated on any other orders she has for me” rasped Guilford. Guilford re-entered the elevator and took the swift trip down towards his next location.

[Vale]

Cyrus stepped out from behind one of the curtains, as he apparently was already in the morgue, awaiting the arrival of Ms. Rosa. As he knew, she couldn't turn a blind eye to his actions for this time, not after all of the other accidents that her ladies happened to come across.

"Ms. Hartzog. It seems we were correct in our assumptions. That Russian woman, is Miss Rosa...a suspected Syndicate Hustler." He spoke as he tapped his foot.
"Detective Treybore, what else did you need to know? What did you need from me?"
"I need a lot of things Ms. Hartzog. However those two girls are the closest to have me reach those ends, so if you excuse me for a moment." He spoke, as he quickly booked it out of the door and onto the street.

Spotting the two women that he was just spying on, he quickly ran up to their car---very sketchily, and was waving his hands.
"Excuse me! Excuse me!" Cyrus spoke, as he was flailing a bit more. "Excuse me!" He shouted, as he pulled out the Badge that the Police Chief had given him to make sure 'loose ends were tied up'.


"Minute of your time you two?" Cyrus asked, smiling a bit as he tried getting the two womens attentions.

[PsychoKath]

Mirage was in the middle of getting the information from one of Guilfords Acolytes when she recieved the text message from Rosa- she hated text messaging, that was more of Mirei's type of thing than hers. Reading it she rolled her eyes and began to type a response while she thanked the Acolyte for the information and asked him to keep his eyes out.

"Rosa, Neve already told me that she would be gone for a while- we decided you would be better in charge than I would. No one is likely to listen to a 'kid' especially since only a few of our members even know I exsist. But listen, we have a problem. A really fucking big one- we're being traced and some dickhead is after my mother. We need to meet asap before something else gets fucked up."

That was the longest message she had typed in her life.

As Mirage walked to her room a huge splitting pain erupted in head- it was Mirei attempting to resume control. She fought her other self, supressing the bright and cheery Mirei from coming back. Mirage hated herself for doing it, Mirei had been shut in for a long time, but it was for the best. She needed to find Treybore.

Finally the pain subsided and mirage was able to continue her walk- no one in the hallway had even noticed she was there. In her room she sat for a long time, expecting to hear back from Rosa and mulling over everything she knew of the man after her mother. She knew he was behind the killing of Rosa's girls, she knew he was tracking their every move, she knew he wanted her mother dead more than anything in the world, she knew he was a decent fighter, and she knew he was intelligent. He had, of course, figured out that the rumours of the Syndicate using a teenager as their law enforcement were true.

But did he figure it out, or was he told?

Quickly she went through the list of members who knew that she exsisted and who she truely was- she then began to eliminate the ones who were trustworthy. That left her with 5 who were sketchy. Using the data screen on her wall she went into the backgrounds of them all- and each had a past that was accounted for, all except for one. His upbringing fit in no way with who this man was, and after cross tracing everything in his biography through her own special databases, most of his past checked out- except for the fact that his serial number in the army was a didget off. Something rarely checked.

Her cold silver eyes flashed as she exited her room.

She moved through the rooms of the Syndicate like a ghost, using all the tricks of her trade to ensure that though she was right in front of many, they had no idea she was there. She was simply a Mirage. Long ago she and Neve had decided that Mirage/Mirei wouldn't be revealed until a time when it was needed for her prescence to be known, to shake up the ranks. Until then, she didn't exsist.

When she reached Darren Courtwright's rooms she picked the lock in less than a second and then slipped inside niselessly. He had wooden floors- supposedly to make it harder for intruders to walk quietly- but that wasn't a problem for her and her hovering boots.

Mirage slipped in front of the man easily, and when he turned around from digging in his refrigerator, he screamed like a little girl. Or, well, he tried to, but she had covered his mouth before the sound had left his lips.

"Let's you and I have a little chat, shall we?" she asked sweetly, right before she slammed his head on the wall.

[Shorik]

Seth had paid for his coffee, and left the cafe. He walked the streets, hoping he'd get some sort of lead. However, his thoughts ended up drifting to the start of his known life....

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He'd woken up on a hospital bed, but he wasn't in a typical hospital. It was a small, grey room, with no windows. Two men in army uniforms were standing on either side of the door a few feet in front of his bed. Seth looked down upon himself, and realized his left arm was a machine one now.

One of the men noticed Seth was conscious, and said something into a communication device. After Seth started to calm down from the initial shock of what he woke up to, a middle-aged man entered the room. He was wearign a politician's suit. He walked over to Seth's bedside and began to speak.
"Ahh.... Mr. Veguna." he said, "You are awake. I know you must be confused, but don't worry, I shall explain what you need to know."
"What I need to know?" Seth asked.
"Yes." the man replied, "You are the U.S. military's newest.... soilder."
"Solider?!" Seth said, "Do you give all your soilders a mechanical arm or something? And why don't I remember anything from before? That another part of being a soilder?"
"No... not all our soilders have mechanical arms like yours..." the man answered with a smile Seth couldn't trust, "As for your memory, it must have been a mere side-effect of the surgery. Do not worry.. Anyways, you are to obey the U.S. government and carry out all tasks given to you by it. Do you understand?"
Seth knew this man was lying. He wished he had somethign he could use to make this man talk. As he thought this, though, his left forarm morphed itself into a rifle of sorts.
"Ah..." the man said, "I see you've activated one of the features of your new arm...Now... if you could just turn it back... please.... PUT THAT DOWN!"
Seth raised his new arm and shot both of the soilders at the door. He then raised it to the man's face.
"You're gonna start telling me the truth. Who am I? Why am I here? Let's start with those." he threatened.
The man had a look of fear in his eyes, "Now, now, Seth.... No need to get violent.. I've told you what you need to know. What matters about the past? Nothing! You should concern yoursefl with the present."
"ANSWER THE QUESTIONS!!!!" Seth shouted, pressing the gun barre closer.
"N-No..." the man replied, "It does not mat-"
before he could continue, the man's head was shot, killing him. From there, Seth escaped the military hospital.
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Back in the present, Seth was taken from his thoughts by a woman screaming. The mercenary looked around until he saw a man grabbing a woman's purse after beating her with a baseball bat.
"Hey!" Seth shouted, beginning to run to the scene. The man noticed set, and began to flee, as Seth pursued him.

[Aubs]

Asher, glancing longingly at himself from the elevator mirror smirked flirtatiously at the reflection looking back at him. It had been some time since he had sent his last outrageous response to Rosa. She hadn’t text back anything great, but that didn’t stop him from sporadically checking his cell phone just in case she happened to change her mind about meeting him later on. There simply was no way she could deny Asher. He was young, good-looking, and he had an awesome job that paid ten times as much as his old one! Did I mention good-looking, boy was handsome! Just what was the reason why she wouldn’t give him the time of day? Okay, he might have been a slight douche and he was probably more slothful then actual sloths, but he was a great guy. Really, he was!
From a young age, Asher pretty much got everything he wanted. It was a given, seeing as he was born into wealth and because of this fact he became quite the spoiled one, doing what he wished, when he wanted to. His parent’s never really raised their voiced toward him until after he had graduated from high school. They’d grown tired of his procrastinating and demanded he make something of his life otherwise he’d be kicked out of the estate and forced onto the streets to live. Although Asher enjoyed the fabulous life, he could have cared less if he lived in wealth or not so he did nothing. He soon got kicked out the very next day with not one dime in his pocket.

As the elevator descended downward to the second floor, it stopped on the third when a woman walked in. She smiled politely, pushing her long chocolate hair behind her ears as she walked in. Asher’s smiled back at her, leaning a little closer to her body. He slyly checked her out, examining ever curve on her body from her large bosom to her lean legs in her cotton pencil skirt. She was beautiful, but something about her sparked a though in Asher’s head. I wonder if her boobs are real, He inquired to himself, taking one more glance over as she looked at some paperwork she had in her hands. If he didn't want to offend her he would have walked over to her and grabbed them himself to check. However, he was positive that if Rosa or even worse, Neve, had gotten ahold of this information he'd be a dead man. Still, he still couldn't stop himself from imagining sexual fantasies just looking at the big brested woman. Hmmm… Would it be rude of me to ask? Placing his hand in his curly mane, he shrugged. Nah! I bet she probably gets asked this question loads of other times! I know if I was a chick and I had boobs that big I probably would get asked that.
“Excuse me, do you think you would be able to answer something for me?” He confidently asked, causing the woman to shift her brown eyes up from her work to him.
“Yes…”
“I was wondering,” Asher began, seeming to be asking something simple like for a pen or something of the sort, but this woman was in for a question much more extreme. “I was wondering, a woman as beautiful as you has such a nice body, but I wanted to know ‘real’ or ‘fake’?” Doucheness peaked at a new height, even for him. He’d never gone as far as asking a woman that.
The woman, now offended scoffed. “Excuse me!?” she called, grimacing with probably the most terrifying frown anyone had ever given Asher as she folded her arms across her chest, crumpling her file in the process. Maybe she assumed that Asher had been some pervert set on taking advantage of her or something. Believe me, it crossed his mind, but Asher simply was not that crafty.
“I wanted to know if your boobs were-” before he could finish, he found himself holding his left cheek for dear life. The agonizing pain and redness he suffered put a smile on the woman’s face as the elevator doors soon opened and she began to walk out not before stopping to say. “And they’re one hundred percent real! Jackass!”

Asher walked out of the elevator, hand still placed on his reddened cheek, made his way into an office. “I know you just saw what happened, didn’t you? Dude… she was totally coming on to me! You saw didn’t you!?” Pacing slowly over to her, Asher smiled at his only friend in The Syndicate, the nerd herself, Gwyn. “I’ll admit, I embarrassed myself back there, but it was all worth it,” He finally took his hand from off of his check and nonchalantly placed it in his hair to shake it. “Believe me, I loved asking her! But anywho, what are you up to? Spy on anyone besides important ol’ me today?”

[Weremouse]

Gwyn looked up from her circle of technology to see Asher, one of her only friends in The Syndicate. Actually, he was one of her only friends ANYWHERE.
"Asher, you walked right into that. Asking a girl if she was real or fake! Honestly!"

"Anyway, I just saw Roxi totally screw up on a mission, and now she's looking for...redemption? Whatever the word is, she's trying to pull help out of me - Knowing this organization, if her new bomb works, she gets all the credit, and if it doesn't, I get all the blame. Life is good." She concluded, rolling her eyes.

OOC: Short post. I didn't have much time today.

[Gafe]

"Send them in, Irene."
Oh, beautiful. . . marvelous day he was having so far. Not onlyhad he cancelled dinner with a valued colleague and a top assassin, not only had he convicted an innocent man for the crimes of the assassin, not only was his investigation on other cases being blocked by a plethora of reasons, now a couple of do-gooders were waiting outside the door ready to do their homework to find the killer of another girl. And they wanted to cooperate with him. Beautiful.
The lawyer watched as the two detectives entered. The pair looked as if they were better suited for some T.V. drama show acting rather than crime investigating. He remembered Marcus from some cases in the past, one of which Saul had mildly fixed up. He remembered reading something about Missy Carter in the newspaper. Somtime.
"Good afternoon detectives" Saul greeted them, standing up to shake both their hands. "How has life treated you, Green? How do you do, Detective Carter?" He gave time for both of them to respond before going down to business.
"Wendy Carver and Nadia Chelyabinsk. . . poor girls, assuming Nadia is who I think she was." Saul had sources in the police departments, but the name of the other, assassinated-in-a-similar-way to Carver, had not yet reached his ears.
"Ask away, both of you, it is a pity that crime-fighters like us don't usually meet for cups of tea, but for punishing those worthy of punishment. Wouldn't you agree?" First step: creating a bond of trust between the three of them.

[Eva]

Missy smiled at Mr. Luna, his cordial mood putting her at ease. She'd been on very few cases, but from what she'd done, she knew that most lawyers hated talking to the authorities before they were legally obligated to. Marcus sat down and decided to lead in. "Mr. Luna, we know that the deaths of Carver and Chelyabinsk are definitely linked, and are connected in a similar manner to several other murders. We just want to know everything you know about Ezekiel Young and what lead to his conviction."

[Eva]

Rosa looked over and saw the man she knew as Wright and sighed. "We no...we no speak language of yours!" she shouted, covering her face and ducking past him. Leading Wright by his hand to an empty alley, Rosa dropped her Russian act and fixed him with a strong glare. "What do you want? I know you're more than Luna says, and you look like a damn freakshow to me. Are you stalking me?" she demanded.

[Grimn]

Guilford exited the car that he was riding in and began to walk the dark streets, his heavy coat draped around his shoulders. The street was dimly lit, a few street lights provided the only illumination in this corridor of what the city had become. “All of these people, these vermin” thought Guilford. “They fill their life with their whores, their drugs, their vices. And for what? The small thrill that comes with it? The five seconds of thrill that follows the vice? These people should be eradicated” he thought, his face remaining etched in stone. “I have judged them and have found ye guilty” he thought. The denizens of the street moved away from Guilford as he walked down the sidewalk. Even here, street smarts dictated that if you felt a bad feeling you got out of there. It was only a short walk before Guilford came out on the main street. Here the road was brightly illuminated, buildings were well kept and maintained. It was the false face that hid the ugliness of the true streets that lay behind them. This face hid the reality of the city and allowed the citizens to perpetuate the belief that all was right in their fair city. Guilford calmly opened the door leading to Saul & Partners Law Firm. The huge building boasted columns and an ornate building design that would make any firm jealous. After entering Guilford approached the receptionist and rasped “I am here to meet with Mr. Montague”. This was a front as was everything in his trade. Already the security company responsible for the surveillance had been infiltrated by his acolytes and the videos would be wiped. Guilford walked up five flights of stairs to the office of Mr. Montague and passed right by the door. He entered a small utility closet and proceeded to then enter a small duct that dropped down a floor. After a small crawl Guilford was able to look down on Mr. Luna as he met with two detectives. “Analysis on these two” whispered Guilford into the mic that was planted in his ear. His acolytes would run quick checks on the two and report back to him when he was finished with this task. “As soon as they leave I shall come down from the heavens to bestow upon Mr. Luna my divine will” he thought.

[Vale]

Cyrus smiled.
"Well, My name is Detective Treybore Wright. I work with the Seattle Police Department Special Task Force, and if you don't mind me, Ms. Rosa, I've quite the list of questions for you." He smiled, as he used his size and own mass of weight to bring Rosa up against the other side of the alley way.

"Course, I go by many other names. Perhaps over dinner I could tell you them all." He smiled as he gazed up and down Ms. Rosa's body.
"We know who you are, and more importantly, I've been cutting up loose ends to bring myself closer and closer to you. Look around you, I was able to survive against your...mirage. Your fleeting attempt at my life." Cyrus smiled as he continued to eye up Rosa for a quick second.

"The whores in which you peddle are better cretins than you are, strumpet." Cyrus smiled as he relaxed his grip on Rosa for a slight bit.

"So let's cut to the chase shall we? You, Miss Rosa, were introduced to me by Saul Luna, and If I'm not mistaken, he called you Ms. Rosalie, which I know isn't your real name, mostly due to him lying about mine. Although, we should take this little meeting a bit more, discretly. As much as I love dirty alleyways, it's far to fitting of a corpse and a whore to meet in." Cyrus smiled as he let go of Rosa and stepped back.

"Well then, there's a great Italian Bistro a few blocks away." Cyrus smiled.


Funny, really.
Was Cyrus Valentine this close just to slit the throat of the whore of Seattle? Or was he aiming to use her to take down Neve once and for all!