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Using back alleys and side streets, Iseul leads the group away from the more touristy areas in San Angeles, and straight to the Industrial side of the city. She finds a warehouse side to lean against and sighs. "This... is about as safe as we're going to get for now," she says quietly. "With Mert, it's going to be a lot harder to move through here."
"I get my disguise now?" Mert asks curiously, hopping up and looking up to Iseul.
Sharai Dravik looks around the area and indicates the more shadowy parts, "We need to get inside somewhere like now, one of these warehouses or something. This might be out of sight but Mert is going to draw a lot of attention real quick. I am surprised no one has been following us, at least not that I can tell."
"Maybe so, Mert," Izzy says with a nod. She eyes the row up and down, looking for a warehouse that doesn't look like it's seen a lot of action of late. She gestures and they scurry further along the darkened sidewalk to the very end. "This one looks like it hasn't been used in years," she mutters quietly. She stands in front of the keypad, biting on her lower lip as she hooks it up to her pda and after a few moments, cracks the code. "We're in."
Mert hops along happily. "Oh boy.. secret agent!"
Sharai Dravik nods as she looks around trying to block anyone's view of Mert as well as be as hard to identify as possible without being all obvious about it. She follows the other two into the warehouse and closes the door immediately after entering. "Home sweet home." she mutters as she looks around
"For now, at least," Izzy replies quietly. "We need to plan our next move. We're both dead, so we can access our accounts and risking getting into our apartments would be foolish. Volstov will probably have people keeping an eye on them."
Mert tilts his head a bit. "You're dead?" he says, putting out a finger to poke Iseul a bit. "You don't look like a ghost... are you undead?"
A black-and-white San Angeles PD hovercar unit whirs down the access road, slowing as it nears one of the warehouses. The driver, a Castori who can barely see above the steering wheel, looks over at his partner, a Zangali who is hunched because he can barely fit under the roof of the vehicle. "Here?" the Castori asks in a hooting voice. The Zangali checks the GPS holodisplay, which clearly shows a green dot for the car and a pulsating red dot in the nearby warehouse. He bobs his snout and says, "Here."
Sharai Dravik nods in agreement with Izzy and peeks out the door cursing, "You know what would be good right now? Hiding would be good right now. There is a black and white outside, how did they find us?"
"Black and white? What's a black and white?" Mert asks.
Iseul swears quietly in several different languages before she nods. "Mert, come this way," she says in a low voice. She gestures to the wall. "Lay down here on the edge in as small of a ball as you can. Sharai, you stay with him." She pulls off her jacket and throws it over the alien, trying to help him blend more into the dark surroundings. She works on finding another spot to crouch down and try to be invisible.
Mert crouches down as low as he can. "Oh boy... my disguise! I'm playing secret agent now?" he says, getting real quiet. "Gotta hide from the evil counter agents!"
Sharai Dravik nods in agreement to Mert, "Right Mert now be really still and quiet." she covers him as best as she can and then hides as well as she can as well nearby.
The Castori plops down from the driver's side of the patrol car. The Zangali gets out of the passenger side and seems relieved to be able to stretch to his full height. Both wear black police uniforms, with gray piping on the trousers. No shoes, though. Unlike their human counterparts on the force, these aliens have their feet unfettered. Both draw their weapons out of habit, though. The Castori hoots into his commlink: "Precinct 16, this is Officer Utrakin. Proceeding into the warehouse." Through the commlink comes a response from dispatch: "Understood. Backup required?" The little bear alien looks up at the massive Zangali next to him, then replies: "Nope. No, I think we're good." With that, they proceed toward the door of the warehouse. The Castori pulls the lever to open the door. The Zangali looks at the GPS display, watching two red dots move. He steps in, looks toward Sharai and Iseul, and then says, "Not dead? Good. Chief was worried."
When the two officers enter, Iseul pulls her own weapon out of its holster and levels it on the two officers from her kneeling position. "Identification," she demands. "How did you find us so damn fast?" Very slowly, she rises to her feet, her hands steady as she stares down both aliens.
Mert hears the weapons being drawn, and he starts to shiver a bit. Unfortunately, such a motion might be visible beneath the coat.
Sharai Dravik pulls out her badge and looks at it, "Iz, don't you think it might have something to do with what we both have? It might not be this but they looked right at us." She looks at the two and tries to inconspicuously draw attention away from the shivering coat
The Castori follows the Zangali in and peers at Iseul incredulously. He hoots a little laugh: "Every cop gets a nano-tracker the day they're hired by the force. You didn't think that was really an aspirin they made you swallow during your first physical, did you?" He taps his chest and says, "Officer Utrakin." Then he gestures to the Zangali. "Officer Totabren. Ask and he will give you the full lineage. It'll take about twenty minutes. Perfect for the ride back to headquarters."
Iseul stares down the officers for another moment before she nods briskly and holsters her weapon again. "In times like this, you can never to too careful," she replies. She is quiet before she moves forward, also placing herself in the line of sight between the officers and Mert. "We should get back to headquarters ASAP." She takes a hold of Sharai's arm, tugging her forward, but keeping a subtle pressure there. She leans in to murmur to her fellow detective.
Sharai Dravik nods and forcably does not look back at the jacket, "Right, we do need to give a report to the Chief after all, him being all worried and everything." Mert peers out a bit from the coat, and notices that Iseul and Sharai appear to be leaving. It's then he pops out from under the coat. "I wanna go too! I don't wanna be alone!" he says, hopping up to them with wide eyes.
"Actually, the chief's been on leave for a couple of..." the Castori starts, but then he just sort of boggles at the strange hopping alien who springs out from under the coat. Totabren almost shoots Mert right in the head, but manages to stop at the point of simply aiming the barrel at the alien. Utrakin just smacks his lips together briefly, then looks from Sharai to Iseul before asking, "How did you get that through customs?"
"Bribery," Iseul replies. She lifts her chin, stepping in front of Mert. "We don't go in until we can see the chief," she says shortly. "We aren't talking for anyone else."
Sharai Dravik just puts her face in on hand and shakes her head at Mert before patting him on the shoulder, "It will be okay Mert."
Mert nuzzles pretty close to Sharai, with big puppy dog eyes. "Ok...
About this time, a black-hulled shuttle descends and lands about twenty feet from the patrol hovercar. No markings on the shuttle. Someone aboard the shuttle directs a bright spotlight through the open door of the warehouse, temporarily blinding the Castori and Zangali as they turn to look at it. So, they have no opportunity to defend themselves against the sniper shots that strike them both in the head. Their bodies topple to the floor as the ramp lowers from the shuttle airlock. Several people in black suits walk down the ramp, armed with plasma pistols, followed by a gaunt-faced man in a dark suit. From behind his wall of agents, the man says, "Surrender is your only option, detectives. I give you one chance. That is all. You may call me Grim and you may know this: I am not as patient as my late lamented superior."
"No!" Iseul all but shouts as the two officers are gunned down. A hand goes to her weapons but thinks better of actually drawing them and fixes a hard look on Grim. She looks down at the two dead men then over to Sharai and Mert before she nods. Her hands move away from her weapons and up in a surrendering gesture.
Sharai Dravik just sighs and waves her hands, "No need to be patient, no fight here." Leaning close to Mert she whispers, "Don't worry, I will not let them hurt you."
Mert starts to cry big wet tears as he looks at the dead officers, and then up to Sharai with wide eyes. "More bad people?"
Grim follows his team into the warehouse. As they get to work disarming the detectives, the lead agent with the spiky white hair takes a look around the warehouse and puts his hands on his hips, saying, "The good news, detectives, is that you did an excellent job of picking a place for our work. We can set up shop right here." More agents come walking down the shuttle's ramp carrying a cage for the Gankri. Others are pushing hovercarts loaded with equipment and scanners. One of the rank and file agents kneels down to pick up Totabren's holodisplay with the GPS readout showing the two dots. He then places a transmitter device of some kind against a pole roughly in the middle of the warehouse. He looks back at the display. The dots vanish. He nods toward Grim, who then favors his captives with a wan smile before saying, "We have so much work to do."
Even as her weaponry is taken from her, Iseul stays tall and proud, standing protectively in front of Sharai and Mert. Her jaw tightens as she sees the cage but she says nothing, instead absorbing everything that passes through the doors.
Eyes locking on the cage Sharai moves only to put a protective arm around Mert, "Bad people, yes Mert bad people." She hands her pistol over with negligantly and doesn't fight if they look for more.
Mert spots the cage being brought down, and he gets even more scared, throwing his arms around Sharai's leg.
The last to emerge from the shuttle: A Castori and a Zangali clad in the uniform of the San Angeles Police Department. They approach the patrol car. The Castori climbs into the driver's seat and speaks into the transmitter, saying, "Officer Utrakin checking in. False sensor echoes. Nothing here." A mournful hoot, then he waits for the dispatcher to acknowledge before nodding to the Zangali, who hunkers down into the passenger seat. Moments later, the patrol hovercar whirs away. The shuttle lifts off, leaving Grim and his agents to clean up the mess of the dead cops on the warehouse floor and begin their transformation of the warehouse into a remote CIS lab and interrogation center.
"So what now?" Iseul asks, watching the proceedings. "We are here. No one knows that we're alive, and you're going to... what, perform a series of experiments on us?"
Sharai Dravik continues to try and comfort Mert but doesn't say anything at the moment, rather interested in the answer to that question herself.
Mert remains silent, tears streaming down his face, wetting the fur, shivering as he hugs Sharai's leg even tighter.
An agent opens the door of the cage after it is dropped in front of Mert - CLANG! - on the concrete floor. "Inside," the agent says to Mert. He doesn't aim his gun at the Gankri, though. His eyes are on Mert, but the gun is pointed at Sharai's midsection. The suggestion is pretty clear: If Mert refuses to comply, the detective takes a gut shot. Grim doesn't answer Iseul right away. Instead, he waits to see whether the alien prefers to be studied alive or posthumously. Untroubled by this showdown in progress, three other agents are busily assembling a larger cage with sections of accordion wall in one corner of the room where the detectives can be kept while in captivity. Two more are setting up a medical bed with restraints. Another is slapping together a desk unit and chair for the agent in charge, across the room from the police cage.
"Mert," Iseul says gently, resting a hand on the Gankri's shoulder. "We need you to get in the cage for now." She tries to pry him free from Sharai. "Or these men are going to hurt us, and then you. But if you do everything that they say, and answer all of their questions as truthfully as you can, then we might get to go home soon. Do you understand?"
Sharai Dravik continues to stand doing as good an impression of looking unconcerned as she can. She makes no move to either encourage Mert to let go or to try and prevent him from doing so, instead she says to Grim. "Please don't hurt him."
Mert looks to the gun, looks to Sharai, looks to Iseul, and then his face turns into an expression of utter hopelessness. Drooping sadly, he hops timidly into the cage, turning to look back the two detectives. He slumps down on the floor, all the happiness drained out of him.
As the agent closes the cage, Grim looks toward Sharai and Iseul. He gestures toward the larger holding area that awaits them, complete with a privacy screen for their makeshift toilet. A couple of agents wait to escort the detectives to their holding cell. Grim peers at the alien inside the cage and says, "Your cooperation is most appreciated." He walks toward his waiting desk and says to his assistant: "Notify CIS headquarters that Application Seven appears to have been a complete success. We're just waiting on the tests to confirm it." The assistant, a dark-haired female human in her mid-30s with a severely short haircut, nods and says, "Yes, sir." Then she's off to transmit the message. Grim settles into his chair and spins around in it for a moment. He looks up at the ceiling and says, "Love my job."
"Is Volstov really dead?" Iseul asks as she walks towards the holding cell. "Or was it just a cover up to avoid having any heat rain down on him because of Porter?" She watches Grim's expressions carefully, looking for any sign of deception.
Sharai Dravik follows the instructions with a look at Mert in his cage before her attention goes back to getting in the cage. Seems she is content to let Izzy ask questions for the moment.
Somewhere, maybe it's the next universe over, there's a flash of blue light. A man in his mid-50s wearing a gray suit and his hair in a crewcut materializes in a large chamber of organic material. Could be the belly of a Yaralu. He looks around and says, "Huh." A grin breaks across his face. "Sure ain't home." He gets a reply from a hovering orb that speaks on behalf of the sentient starship that carries it: "Some disorientation is to be expected. You are aboard Comorro Station. You are not the first to rift here." That gets a smirk from the human, who says, "I damn well bet I'm one of the few who did it on purpose." That gets a few clicks and whirs of silent consideration from the Yaralu's avatar before it replies: "That would be an accurate assessment."
Meanwhile, back in the warehouse in San Angeles, the lead agent who calls himself Grim lifts an eyebrow and swivels his chair to look toward Iseul and Sharai as they are shown into their cell. "Dead," the man says, face a flatline of emotion. "Crispy critter. Won't be missed."
Iseul's hands tighten into fists as she stares around her. "The sad thing is, we would have been safer on Tomin Kora," she laments quietly.
Sharai Dravik shrugs from where she is trying to not give the captors the satsifaction of seeming anything but calm, no matter how forced that calm is. "Maybe, though i don't think we have been safe since we got back. We are a commodity now Iz, to the TM folks or to these."
"Get some rest, Sharai," Izzy says quietly. "I have a feeling the next few days are going to be very trying on all of us."
Sharai Dravik nods and looks from one corner floor space to another, "Oh however shall I choose?" she says sarcastically before settling down in one of them and leaning gainst the bars. "What fun." she mutters and leans her head back, eyes closed.
"Just remember," Izzy says softly. "The more you resist them, the more pain they're going to inflict on you. We'll find a way out of here, Sharai. Just make sure you stay in good enough condition to make a clean getaway."
Sharai Dravik cracks one eye open to answer, "I am not all that worried about the pain but I am worried about Mert." she closes her eye and says, "I will try not to make them feel the need to inflict more pain then they feel they need to to get whatever they want."
"The more concern you show about anything, especially Mert, the more they'll enjoy seeing you squirm," Izzy replies. "Stay calm and detached, Sharai. That's the only way we're going to get through this."
Sharai Dravik frowns but nods, "Will do my best Izzy. Not going to be easy though, in the least. I like the odd guy."