Standard Procedures

"More, yes, they do-" Special Agent Carver slowly stepped toward a small section of the warehouse, clearly comparing something on the notes to an imprint in the dirt and blood on the floor. Gritting her teeth, she stepped to another side and compared yet another marked-off imprint on the ground to the notes in her hands. "Animals, don't remove their victims' clothes. Animals- don't use tools to cut their prey up. And animals... Animals don't take bits with them in a duffle bag."

"An animal didn't do this... But that's not the question you and I ask. Someone did this, but was it a human, or a meta?"

As if gripped by some unseen force, Ben began to step forward into the blood. A local forensic scientist would have stopped her, but everyone except the two special agents had either left the crime scene or were shooting the shit outside. At this point there was no more information they could learn anyway, everything had been logged, cataloged, and pictured. All that remained was a cleanup crew, and Ben would do what she needed before they arrived later. In the blood, she mimicked the footprints of the first individual, the 'perpetrator.' Motioning for Vesta to join her, she began to step into the footprints. Vesta made a face, said something about her shoes, and relented at Ben's insistent looks.

They moved together, like actors following the motions of a deviant play. Although Vesta certainly didn't get as 'into it' as Ben did, she moved along nonetheless. With every step, Ben described the actions of their theater-

"Scene! I'm a cannibal murderer, or maybe I'm not, but I am standing here. I've killed someone- was I clean about it?"

"Obviously not?"

"Obviously, there's blood everywhere, I'm covered in it too, but I stop eating here, why?"

"You're full?"

"No, someone interrupts me, and I don't like my meals interrupted. What interrupts me?"

Hesitation from Vesta, their eyes interlock for a moment before looking over a pile of broken railing.

"You interrupt me- you fall from there and observe my gruesome sight. Who are you? You don't run-?"

"I," Vesta sighs, but continues with Ben's play, "No, I don't run."

"No!" Ben nearly shouts this, her body and mind in the throws of their dance, "You want to fight me, to stop me! What do I see you as yet, food? A toy to play with? I don't attack immediately, I retrieve my weapon and you grab one for yourself. A pipe? The piece is missing from the railing, you didn't bring a weapon with you- why?"

"I didn't need one?"

"But you did, you grabbed a pipe-"

Vesta interrupted her now, getting into her role a bit, "I can make do with anything around me!"

"Yes! So you use the pipe, and I, the vicious killer, I don't attack first. I'm not leaping out of my comfort zone, no, I'm attacked."

"I want to stop you, so I charge you-" And Vesta did just that, moving through the bloodstains. She was careful in her 'charge' but swifter and lighter on her feet than Ben expected. She swung her imaginary pipe at Ben, and Ben stepped aside. Again, Vesta swung, and again Ben dodged, wondering aloud, "Why am I just dodging? Why am I not attacking?"

"This is a game?"

"It's a game- until it isn't. Something happens here, we tussle and fall to the ground..."

"I'm not falling on the ground."

"..."

"No!"

"Fine, imagine, we're on the ground, we tussle, and I do- what?"

"You bite me?" Vesta's cheeks reddened ever so slightly, but Ben didn't notice.

"Yes! I bite you, and we extricate ourselves from one another. I run away to get my things, my tools, my weapons, and you don't stop me? Why"

"Maybe you've convinced me of the joys of eating human flesh?"

"Be serious."

"I am! Haha! Ok, maybe I'm doing something I don't want you to see?"

"Let's hope it was recording- but I get my things, then what?"

"Then, you leave?"

"I leave-? And I let you leave, and you let me leave? No that's not the game we were playing, something happened..."

Ben looked once more to the notes, then flicked a hand as if discovering something missed, "Metal shavings and flashpowder residue in the blood, right at this spot... You threw something at me- why?"

"Because I want to escape-?"

"You're a vigilante, someone who wants to stop me from my evil, and you not only let me leave, but you escape yourself. Perhaps I'm too strong for you, but you don't flee until you have something, until after the tussle. You have evidence."

Vesta hesitated, waiting for Ben to say something. When nothing else came forth, she asked, "Are we done-?"

"Yes, I think so..."

Vesta sighed, relieved that the 'play' was finally over. Casting an askance glance at Ben that the older woman took as a 'reality check,' Vesta spoke, "That's all well and good, but all we really have to go off here is that there were three people, one was eaten, one did the eating, and another tried to stop it. Criminal behavior, but was it metas?"

Ben hesitated for a moment, leaning down to pick up a small shard of metal shaving from the ground. Examining it for a minute, then examining the notes, "There were no internal components discovered along with these stun bombs, and they're in the shape of spheres, like ninja tools? No pins either, and I doubt that'd be an item brought along after leaving all this. Maybe it was regular criminals, but with so many strange events occurring lately..." Ben hesitated for a moment, then nodded, "Add it to the list. We'll consider this a meta event until proven otherwise."