*Malcom POV*
*Location: Gotham City, New Jersey
*Date: January 15th, 2002*
Moving the body over to the corner, I began rewrapping a few of my bandages, reapplying the various runes and symbols to my body using the cheap Sharpie. Best thing I could do since I was sure no tattooist would ever want to get them imprinted over my very much burnt body, one that was still healing very slowly.
Taking a look over the corpse, I could see that his skin was already starting to decay, quite rapidly at that. Especially around his wounds, the flesh around them was starting to fall off, revealing the bone, as well as its other insides, or lack thereof. It had the muscles, bones, and everything else someone would think wouldbe inside a human. However, the way it was tangled up, it looked like they were experimenting with it.
Improving the system, the basic biology of the human body, combined with one of the dread powers. Essentially, combining science and magic into this weird eldritch art thing in front of me. In fact, if I had to guess, the students were all lab rats, all for the sick idea of reaching perfection by whoever was doing this.
It was disgusting and fascinating, in the same way one can find morbid history fascinating. Don't get me wrong, it was horrible and wrong, but the way it was stitched together, the way the flesh and bone were reassembled, was fascinating. Wiping my hands off on my desk, I went over to Mrs. Valentine, or was it Ms. Valentine, although I didn't really know if she was married or not.
Knocking on the piece of overturn furntiture, I saw a hesitant Henriette peak their head out, looking around and spotting me. She let out a sigh of relief as she slowly got out from the furniture, and I offered a hand and helped her back to her feet. Helping her calm down a bit after being nearly kidnapped by some undead former student whom I was just moments ago poking around in their insides.
"Thank you so much, I-I-I don't know how he or it followed me, no one knew I was coming here a-a-and I came here through a weird bus route." Her tone was full of fear and anxiety, and nearly puking at the sight of her former student's body.
"Well, whoever did this to your student was probably experimenting on the rest of your kidnapped students, in some sick and twisted science experiment." I said with the calmest tone I could put on.
Well, the truth was I was calm, because these things weren't the freakiest thing I have ever seen. I mean, just the last case alone is far more terrifying to normal humans, at least, and let's not talk about when I had to seal off a bit of 'The Ends' influence in one particular bad area.
"So, where did you see this thing when you had the photo taken." I asked her as I bent down and took a hair sample from the rotting corpse.
"Ummm, it was near the university. Do you have a map or something I could use to help jog my memory?"
Nodding my head, I went over to my desk and opened up one of the drawers, grabbing the same map I used last time with Wallace, or better known now as Killer Croc. Even if that particular nickname was not earned in this universe, at least not yet, hopefully. I laid the map out on the desk, or at least the part where the university was located.
Henriette came over to me and looked over the map, doing her best to remember the route she took when following the dead student. Eventually, she pointed toward teh very edge of the map I had unfolded, toward a part of the city that was in desperate need of renovations.
Not exactly gang territory or anything like that, but those old parts of an old city that never got the attention they needed over the years. Nodding my head, I grabbed a notebook and pen, jotting down the information whilst grabbing some loose change to pay for teh portal fare.
"Alright then, you should head home or get a hotel or something, anywhere public at the very least, give me a number I can call you on, and I'll tell you when the job is done or at least the current situation is over with."
"Alright, umm, here you go, this should-but wait, shouldn't we call the police or something, I mean, this was an attempted kidnapping and murder attempt at the very least?" She said cofnused on why I wasn't calling the cops as she handed me a number to call her on.
"Magical problems require magical solutions." I said as I stuffed the number into my coat pocket and prepared to cast a portal spell.
"NEPO, NEPO, ROOD OF SRELLEVART!"
"EHT ERAF I ERFFO SI HSAC, EMAN ROU ECIRP!"
I shouted aloud as a blue portal opened up with a shimmering yellowish '$1.50' hovering over it, and the travel price this time. Sighing, I tossed a dollar and a couple of cents into the portal, and as the portal accepted it, I looked over to see Henritte's mouth agape and shocked, probably still not used to the idea of magic being real. She is a colleague professor after all, and was more versed in science than the magical side of the world.
"So listen, please stop freaking out and get yourself to safety, again, a public space, preferably like a hotel or motel."
With a wave goodbye, I stepped into the portal, ready to get this investigation actually underway. Stepping out on the otherside, I was greeted not with the rundown section of the city I was expecting, but rather a strange fusion of both, dozens of rundown buildings, but a few that were renovated into bars, sleezy hotels, or nightclubs.
Perfect place for people who have something to hide, the whole place was far louder than I expected it to be. Shaking my head, I got out the piece of hair and began looking around, slapping myself mentally as I forgot to bring the photo with me. No matter, I just needed to get to the general location, and I could hopefully start tracking wherever the hell this thing went previously.
I did eventually find an area, I recongized form the photo, but whether or not it was would depend if my spell led me in the correct direction.
"DLO SDOG WOHS ME SIHT ERUTAERC THAP!"
Instantly, a faint black smoke began floating toward me, and my eyes were instantly filled with the substance. My eyes were now able to see a faint golden trail as the rest ofthe world darkened a bit. Putting my hands in my coat pocket, I began following the trail goign into a large alleyway. I looked around at all the trash...and bloodstains scattered here and there.
I did not doubt that a few of them were from the victims themselves, probably struggling as their captors dragged them away. However, the majority of it, I would guess, was from the random mugging over the years. A little saddening to know that most of these crimes probably went unpunished, but it was unfortunate, and it was Gotham after all.
The golden line leads me to an open sewer entrance, one covered in moss and dirt, alongside bloodstains mixed in as well. Sighing to myself, I stretched myself, unsure if I would have to run a marathon down there, dreading the fact that I was about to go into the sewers once more.
Testing the ladder a bit, it felt sturdy enough to climb down, and so I took my first step down. Making my way downward, I saw that whoever dragged teh victims down here was not careful with them; the whole place was splattered with bloodstains. Whether or not that meant they killed the victims before bringing them back down here to experiment on, or if they were alive while whoever did it reshaped them.
I didn't know which option was more horrible; at least with the dead ones, you would know that a mind was trapped behind them. I knew I wasn't a hero, nor anything close to it. If someone threatens my life, I will kill them, but if I had a chance to save them, I would and try to.
My arsenal, though, wasn't good enough to untransform someone going through such a procedure of science and magic mix. It wasn't impossible, probably; if there was a way to do it one way, there was probably a way to do it the other. To stop the entity's influence and heal the physical body of the person suffering.
Hitting the ground, I felt no splash of water or anything like it, meaning this place hasn't been used in years or was no longer connected to the main sewer line. Perhaps it was part of old Gotham, the city this place was built atop of. Which interesting tidbit, this city had all sorts of nooks and crannies no one would look down on if you were investigating or were briefly homeless.
Not the whole city mine you, but this place suffered an earthquake some years back, way before Bruce Wayne or even Thomas and Martha Wayne were born. So they just paved over it, built around it, and now there's an entire section of the city sealed away with only a few entrances leading down there.
This, perhaps being one of them, or just an old sewage runoff that was cut off from the mainline or never fully completed. In all honesty, I was hoping for the last option; it would make my job a whole lot easier. However, as the golden lines led me further and further down, I was losing hope that it was that option.
Eventually, I came across a massive intersection, one that had various bits and pieces of old and new lab equipment. Including a bloodstained surgical table, and the golden line ended there, with the spell stopping soon after as I got a glimpse of this horrid place.
It was covered in moss and mushrooms, but almost no bloodstians meaning that whoever operated in here was careful. The only blaindstaisn were on the surgical table and a few of the older tools that were probably no longer in use. Yet no signs of The Flesh or The Strangers influence, at least none that I could clearly see without cheating a little.
Picking up an old scaple, I looked it over, trying to get a closer look at the object and see if perhaps I was missing something.
"Laever taht hcihw sedih morf ym thgis." I said as I grabbed a Sharpie in my pocket and began drawing the Eye of Ra on the floor.
Usually I didn't do stuff like this, but using concepts intertwined with mytholog my magic was boosted a little and allowed me to see things I normally wouldn't. As the spell activated, I began to see shadowy images of people, both the perpetrator in question and the victims/minions.
They were performing a complex surgey ripping out the bones and bits of flesh, carving symbols into them. That's when I saw it, sickening signs of red, shadowy tendrils clawing their way out of the perpetrator. A look of blissful pleasure on their face as the thing tore off a piece of flesh, dabbing a bit on the corpse in question.
It was then stitched back together, the creature rising back up no longer a human but now a servant of this avatar. Most likely for The Flesh, but where they were now, I had no idea, and the blood was too old to use. Alongside that, I couldn't see a single bit of DNA from the guy in question.
Meaning I had to figure out if they had a second location they went to in case they ever got found out. Alongside the fact that they had access to, well, not high-end surgical equipment, but enough to get this twisted ritual started, should provide another clue.
I just needed to figure out who the supplier was, and I'd have a name to start searching for.