The day before.
The new task force assembled by the Mayor of Baltimore began their mission to capture the CEO Killer. Shaft, Vogue, Doc Rocket, and Johnny Panic arrived at the crime scene to investigate.
"If you find anything, report it through our channel," Shaft said.
Everyone nodded and split up to gather information. Shaft headed to the spot where the body had been found. He looked around, searching for anything out of place.
Then he noticed something odd. He spotted inconsistencies with the crime scene photos taken by forensics. Some books and files were missing from the room.
"This doesn't add up."
Shaft was confused by the discovery, but he wasn't the only one. Doc Rocket had been running around the factory at super speed. She stumbled upon a hidden basement. When she looked inside, it was far too clean. It felt like everything in the room had been scrubbed.
"Hmm, this is weird," Doc Rocket muttered before speaking through her comms. "Guys, I think I found something. There's a huge basement underneath this factory."
Johnny Panic was using his technology to scan the factory for anything left behind, but he hadn't been able to find anything. Neither had Vogue.
When they heard Doc Rocket's report through the comms, all of them headed to her location. She guided them down. When they arrived, they were all surprised by what they saw and began checking for more clues.
"This is weird, right?" Doc Rocket asked her teammates.
"You're right," Vogue answered. She walked across the room and noticed something on the ground. It seemed to have faint indentations. "Johnny, scan this floor."
"Sure." Johnny walked over and began scanning. The scan revealed box-shaped impressions in the concrete. Some of them had lines inside the shapes, and circular marks had been pressed into the floor. He also found scratch marks from human fingernails and deep grooves left by heavy objects being dragged across the ground. The others gathered around, watching as Johnny completed a full scan of the floor.
Seeing the results, Vogue reached a conclusion. "This place originally held cages of some sort."
"I agree. There's even running water that could have been used down here," Shaft added, pointing to a water pipe along the wall.
Johnny had already pieced it together. He knew what the evidence meant. "This must have been a human trafficking ring." He sighed. "I was right, Rachel. That mayor is sketchy."
"But you're the one who said we should accept the job since we had nothing else to do," Doc Rocket retorted.
Johnny couldn't argue back. She was right. He turned to Shaft. "So what are we going to do, Captain? The CEO Killer might actually be doing the right thing."
"Let's gather more evidence. Then we'll try to make contact with the CEO Killer and get more information before we take this into our own hands," Shaft said. He was being cautious. The mayor was likely dirty too. The only person in power who could have orchestrated something like this was him.
Because of this, they had to hide their findings from the mayor. If he found out, it could lead to far worse problems, problems Shaft would rather not experience again. It could destroy their already damaged reputations even further. Worse, they could end up thrown in jail.
'This is a headache,' Shaft thought to himself. A simple chase was turning into a political mess.
"I hate working with the government, even though they pay a lot," Shaft muttered under his breath. But then he smiled. At least he was with his team once again.
. . . .
Present day.
It was the weekend, and Mark was wearing his superhero suit. But he wasn't working as a hero today. He was searching for magic. The internet had already given him what he needed, or at least enough vague and questionable information on where magic could be learned. He decided to check the locations himself to see if there was anything worthwhile.
'I don't know if I'm going to find anything in broad daylight.'
Mark sighed. There were no guarantees. This wasn't DC or Marvel, where sources for learning magic or anything similar were easy to find because those stories had explored that part so thoroughly. He wondered if anything like that existed in this universe.
When he arrived at the first location, he focused his hearing to check for anything unusual. He found nothing. He crossed it off his notebook and moved on. He decided to head to New Mexico. It was called the "Land of Enchantment," after all.
He flew around and used his hearing. This time, something caught his ear. It was the sound of a mature woman shouting, trying to get people to safety.
"All of you, get out of here!"
"Out."
"Oh no. You're dead. That's what the smell is. You're all walking dead."
Then he heard a gunshot. It sounded like the woman had been hit. Her voice softened and slowed as she began to lose consciousness. Mark grumbled to himself. He didn't want to work today. He only had so many days left. But he had to act. Someone was in danger.
"Can I have one day without helping people?"
He flew toward the source of the sound. When he arrived at a church, he crashed straight through the beautiful painted glass window. He hovered in the air, looking down at five people in suits. One of them was clearly not dressed like the others. He also spotted a dead pig for some reason and a broken casket. Then his eyes landed on the woman he had heard.
She was beautiful, with long black hair, wearing a black dress and a golden wrist bracelet. Mark quickly swooped down, scooped her up, and floated just far enough away from the group while still remaining inside the church. He set her gently against the wall. She looked slightly relieved at the sight of a hero before slipping into unconsciousness.
'Okay, she's alive,' Mark thought, still able to hear her breathing.
He turned toward the group, his eyes turning serious. Before any of them could react, Mark blitzed through them, knocking each one out. Only the last man, the one not wearing a suit and likely the boss, was left. Mark ripped the gun from his hand, grabbed him by the neck, and lifted him into the air.
"What were you planning to do with that woman?"
The man stayed quiet. Mark tightened his grip. "Answer me! Before I break every single bone in your body."
The man gritted his teeth, but he was still smiling. Then Mark heard something. The people he had knocked unconscious were waking back up like nothing had happened. Like zombies.
"No wonder I didn't hear any breathing from them. Are you using necromancy?" Mark asked.
The man didn't answer. He only smirked. Fed up, Mark hurled him against the wall. The man coughed up blood but was still alive.
'If they're zombies, I can just kill them.'
Mark proceeded to rip the zombie bodies apart. The man who had been smiling, his smile vanished as he watched Mark handle them like they were nothing.
Mark approached the man again, kneeling down to meet his eyes. He closed his own for a moment before speaking. "Tell me what you were trying to do, or I'll rip you apart just like them."
The man was shaking now, fear overtaking him. He gulped, sweat pouring down his face.