The puppeteer makes his mark

Yumo walked lazily down the streets of Illinois. He was on his way to meet his date and was now down the street from the meeting point. Their was a crash and scratching sound that came from down the street. Yumo left his gear at home because he wasn't expecting to fight anybody tonight. He stopped in his tracks as he listened to the sounds again. Their was a muffled scream and a begging of some sort. Yumo quietly stepped next to where the sound was coming from. He was wearing a yellow collard shirt with some khaki pants and some yellow and white jordans.

"Where is he." Came a twisted mechanical like voice.

The voice was very deep in tone and the venom from his words was enough to let yumo know that this guy was not happy. His promise to his mother rang in his ear as he listened into their conversation.

"I truly tried to find him but I don't know." Came a rapidly stuttering and scared voice.

This was the voice of a more educated man and as such was probably a detective of some sort. There was a loud whirring sound and a clank like something began to whined up and turn. Yumo sat their not knowing what to do. The light from the moon showed nothing inside of the darkness but yumo had to try something even if he couldn't see he could still give the victim a chance to escape.

Suddenly the whirring sound stopped and the mechanical voice came back. "No i'm going to give you one more chance and this time you won't fail." He said and at first the detective was relieved but then he paused.

"What is that!!!" He yelled but instead of an answer a series of rapping sounds and loud bangs went off.

Yumo ran into the alley but a gust of wind rushed out of nowhere and blew him into the road. He crashed into an incoming car and was knocked into the bike lane. Their was a series of feet and a cry coming from somewhere that yumo couldn't see. He turned and saw a man in a business suit hanging from a nearby light post. The image was spinning but he could still see the whip like slash marks across his body.

It took a minute but yumo realized that those looked a lot like marks he makes when he attacks someone. He staggered up as people ran past him to see the site of the man as blood dripped constantly from his body. Yumo thought about the marks for a while as he walked down to his meeting spot. He still had a few minutes before his date was suppose to appear. That's when he realized who it was. The obviousness of who it was made Yumo feel extremely stupid.

Yumo stood at the meeting spot feeling extremely stupid as he thought this over and over. He was constantly rejecting the notion but it was their. The mechanical voice, the whirring sound, the wrapping sounds, the wind that pulsed as the culprit disappeared. The only person he ever knew that could do this was his cousin.

"Melret I hope it's not you." He said as he continued to wait at the meeting spot. He stayed their all night but his date never came.

"These are whip marks. Probably from someone who is ambidexrious."

"...how can you tell....?"

If Leon Booth had nickel for every time the FBI had asked him that question, he would have accumulated. $1.45 over the last 3 years. "Well, the whipping strikes are angled from both directions. If someone was right handed, the ones from the right would be deeper or more accurate. They aren't, this was done by someone who was equally strong in their right and left arms." He paused, looking at the photographs closer. "It's not a bullwhip, either. Something custom. Not exactly like any whipping marks I've seen before."

"...but... how can you tell that?"

$1.50.

Leon Booth specialized in patterns. If a murder that necessitated action on the Federal level was found with a similar Modus Operandi, he most certainly saw it come through his office. "I'm wondering..." He said quietly. "Why isn't local police dealing with this, if all of the events are in the localized area here in Chicago?"

"Because the victims are the only evidence. No witnesses, hair, urine, or DNA at the scene."

Leon frowned. "That is concerning." He had seen that before, the pattern indicated someone who wanted to send a message, or was at least proud of their work, and needed others to see it for some reason. But they were clearly smart enough to not leave obvious evidence outside of that. It was a bad sign.

"From the phone tap we intercepted, there's supposed to be some meeting going on here between criminals. Someone important in the underground got kidnapped, a business man, they didn't give many details." The FBI chief outlined the details to the team. "We've already got a group ready to move, but we need confirmation. That's where Leon comes in."

Leon leaned backed in his comfortable seat, a little surprised. His hands lifted off of the hard table. "I just give you the answers I... I'm not qualified for field work."

The Chief raised his eyebrows and closed his eyes for a second. "Well..." He nodded. "That is true, but so far no one else has been able to identify this particular type of whip. Not even the computers. We need you on-site to verify either the victim so we can create a perimeter around the scene, if it happens. This is the difference between a single meeting, or catching a serial murderer."

Pause.

"Don't worry. You'll have backup. We'll keep you safe."



That was 12 hours ago. Now, Leonhard Alexander Booth sat, wearing a bulletproof vest, in an undercover squad car with a pair of goggles, watching a certain Alleyway. They had just pulled in a few minutes ago. It was too dark to see much, and he adjusted his vision. "...dammit." He said.

"What?" His partner replied, turning quickly to him.

"We're too late. The victim is hanging already. Call the FBI, get them to set that perimeter. I recognize those marks. It's our guy." He said timidly, not wanting to cause an alarm. To be honest, his heart was pounding. He had never been this close to an actual crime scene before, where the criminal would be still present.

"Wait. Hold up."

"What?"

"There's someone else, running into the alley."

Indeed, from the opposite direction that Leon was, another figure entered into the Alleyway.

"Watch him." An hour passed, and the meeting never took place. The FBI perimeter was an apparent failure, and no one was caught after even the entire hour had passed. Leon thought hard about his choices.

"Look, we can go now. It's not taking place, and if we don't have anything beyond probable cause..." His partner was fatigued, and a little scared. Leon was angered at their weakness.

Leon responded by opening the car door, and walking out toward the Alley, cautiously approaching the figure who was still there. He held up a hand cautiously. "Hello. Are you alright?" He said, still about twenty feet away.

Yumo decided that after waiting for a few minutes for his date to leave. It was obvious they weren't coming making yumo feel gullible. As he walked he decided to go back to the alley way. When he got their cops were retrieving the body from the light post. Yumo decided to take this time to look into the alley while he thought most of the people were distracted. His skin crawled as he walked into the scene of the crime. Blood painted parts of the walls and as he looked he noticed something.

He could see markings of some kind lashed into the walls but he wasn't tech, map, or code savy so all he did was stare at the clues. He decided to check the rest of the area and just as he thought blood was on the wall opposite the symbols. Unlike most blood this blood was painted black and blue with slight tints of red from the culprit.

"Why are you so meticulous?" Yumo asked himself. The question was directed towards Merlet but he wasn't in the vasinity to hear it.

Yumo sat there staring at the blood as his worst fear was recognized as a reality. His brother was on the move and coming straight for him. Just as yumo was about to leave a voice came from behind him. "Hello, are you alright?" He asked smiling although he kept his distance.

"I'm great." Yumo said with a cautious tone to it. There was a high chance that they didn't know who he was but the fact that he's at the crime scene makes him a suspect. At least that what he's taken in from watching all of those cop shows.

"You're not hurt, right?" Leon said. He approached closer. "Do you know what happened here?"

A sound, not audible, struck the back of Leon's head. The patterns. He saw them, the markings on the wall. His mind was already immediately at work contextualizing them. Black and blue blood. Symbols carved into the other wall. Some kind of religious cult, maybe? Symbols signify a message. But this message, to correspond with previous evidence needs to be intended for an individual capable of interpretation, able to understand the contexualization. "Some... killer..." He muttered. "....message..." He felt weak suddenly.

It takes a certain mind to appreciate the mathematics.

The words echoed in his head. Leon suddenly winced, holding his head with his hand as he sunk to his knees. He made a small sound as his head hurt with an excruciating pain, before falling flat on his face in front of Yumo.

"Oh shit." Was all yumo said as he watched the man go down. He didn't even know what the man was doing he was normal one minute then the next he seemed a little woozy. Yumo began to rush towards him but he collapsed before he got there. Yumo was now looking down at the man as he just laid there.

"Maybe he will get up in a second." Yumo said to himself as he staired at the fallen man.

"Yeah he ain't gettin up." He said then he grabbed the man by his waist and hauled him onto his shoulder.

When he left the alley way to give the man back to the police he was shot. He looked down as the wound stung for a second before going numb. It was a tranquilizer dart. Yumo yanked the dart out and stared at it for a few seconds before his eyes went cross eyed and he collapsed on the floor unconscious.

Leon woke up. He was in the cop car. "...what..." he thought. He looked down at himself before looking to the side to see his partner.

"Thank god you're awake. I thought you were knocked out cold."

Leon shook his head. Thoughts were running through it faster than he could keep track. "What happened?"

"You fainted. I thought you had been struck, but there's no trauma. Just..." His partner looked at him, concerned. ".... Just bad timing." Leon could hear the screech of tires as the car went straight for the investigative center, he looked over his shoulder to see Yumo lying across the back seat of the vehicle.



Three hours later.

Yumo was inside a holding cell. It was just a bed, a table, a chair, all of which were bolted to the floor, and a toilet. There were whispers outside of the door of the agents on the outside. No one had come in yet, and the tranquilizer would be wearing off, giving him some time to explore his surroundings if he wanted to, before the FBI got too involved.

Leon watched the figure from a security Camera. he frowned, confused. He couldn't remember seeing that person, all he could remember were those symbols...

"We'll figure out what happened, but by the looks of it, you'll get a slap on the wrist for puting yourself into a compromising situation. They were unarmed when we picked him up, but we haven't had much time to figure out if they witnessed the murder or not, or if they might be a suspect." the Chief said to him. "Best we can do now is wait for that tranquilizer to wear off and do some questioning. Your partner will get off on self defense, after seeing you faint like you did, I'm sure his concern will hold up. That being said..." He put his arm around Leon and pulled him to the side. "... unarmed. They were unarmed. Your fainting was from you, now, don't worry too much... a lot of people faint when they first see blood. But you have to let me know you're alright, okay?"

"I'm alright sir."

"We'll set up the appointments for a psychiatrist and heart doctor later, state demands that we investigate any unusual points of unconsciousness. Needless to say, you won't be out in the field for a long time. Are you okay with that?"

Leon nodded weakly. "Yeah. I think so."

"Alright. I'm sorry for putting you right in the thick of things, but that's the job. Stay well." The chief patted his back before turning away.

Leon breathed in deeply, flexing his fingers and assessing how his body felt. Aside from his racing mind, he felt fine. He wasn't without worry though, and for now, occupied himself by watching the security video.

Yumo groggily looked around at his surroundings. For a few minutes he didn't realize where he was since he was still feeling that tranq. course through his veins. The walls were grey and concrete and a toilet was bolted down in the corner. Yumo noticed he was sitting at a silver table and sitting in a silver chair that was also bolted down to the floor. Suddenly a door opened behind him and two people came in. They wasted no time in asking questions.

"Who are you." Came one question.

"How are you you associated with the murder." Came another.

"Why were you at the scene of the crime." Came another.

"Answer the questions!!!" The man yelled into yumo's face.

It took him a minute but once yumo regained himself he realized he wasn't chained to the table or the chair. He looked at the two men and realized they were in business suits but a badge was swung around constantly. Yumo looked and realized he was in a holding cell. But then they started to bombard him with questions again.

"The killer was my cousin not me, I am Yumo Middleton, and I was in the crime scene because I had nothing better to do." he said mouthingly as he watched the detectives soak in what he said.

"Now you listen here boy we are able to use force if necessary so don't mess with us." Said one while the other just watched.

"Wow good cop bad cop...really that's what you come at me with?" Yumo said laughing at the site but in response the other cop rushed over the table and swung his hand hard across yumo's face.

His head swung sideways and his face turned red a little. The other detective smirked at the site and the one that slapped yumo just wiped off his hand on his shirt.

"Can't believe I wasted energy on filth like you." He said raising his slightly red hand showing the damage done to himself as a result of what he inflicted on yumo. "This hand is suppose to hit people like super villains or murders not teenage suspects with bad attitudes." He said and the other one just chuckled and waved his finger in a you shouldn't have done that type of manner.

The man turned again and thrusted his hand forward but stopped it mere inches from Yumo's face. Yumo didn't flinch yumo was calmer than ever as he watched as the cop thought he had inflicted some type of fear into yumo. The cop pulled his hand back and instead of punching yumo he spat on him.

"Are you paid to be this mean?" Yumo asked as the cop turned.

"Are you paid to be such a brat?" He asked back as he looked at his partner.

Yumo was done with this conversation, these two were not worth talking to so he decided to finish this conversation. He jumped atop the table and kick the partner into the wall to his right. when the wall and him connected he immediately fell to the floor unconscious. The partner turned in rage and tried to swing at yumo but his hand was stopped by a stream of blood emanating from somewhere on his left.

"You should really clean the cells it's not sanitary." Yumo said as he gestured to the dead rat as blood leaked out of it and streamed itself around his wrist.

He brushed his hair backwards and swung his foot forward and then stinging the detectives face with his hand. The man fell to the floor in pain and fear. Tears welled up in his eyes as blood pooled in his mouth lightly.

"How do you expect to deal with villains and the murderers if you can't even beat a suspect." He said then he kicked the guy and knocked him unconscious.

Seconds later the police stormed the room and chained yumo to the table while simultaneously cleaning the whole room of any form of weapon that could possibly be used by yumo.

"Well it was fun while it lasted." He said as the cops left with the detectives in tow.

Leon hated watching interrogations. But he couldn't avoid it. He had to know what this was all about. He had to know what those symbols meant. It started off innocuous enough, but when the boy refused to answer the questions, things became... violent.

He's related to the killer then... if he's eager to tell us who it is... why don't they stop and give him a chance...? He narrowed his eyes. He could see the pattern of emotions, the result of breaking this kid's will. It was a bad path, and his colleagues couldn't see what was right in front of them, much less what it meant. Leon's legs itched with the need to stop them, but he had risked his future enough today. He was still a rookie, and it wasn't his place to stop an ongoing investigation.

Leon winced as the suited figure struck across the teenager's face. He frowned. I don't think he knows nearly as much as they- His eyes widened at the events that came afterward. The kid didn't even flinch when the hand came in front of him. This guy isn't normal. He's hiding something. No one with that kind of self-control would put himself into this situation... unless he wanted to be.

When the figure jumped up to attack his colleagues, Leon's confusion turned into surprise. Those around him immediately ran toward the room while he stayed, watching the monitor. He felt no anger at the attack, in fact, he was shocked at its potency. ...not normal... He was beginning to doubt what 'normal' was.

That's when the blood started moving on its own.

"...the fuck...?" Leon said. He had seen some crazy things before, but this was taking the cake. As he saw the blood move, his head began to pound again, recalling those bloody patterns on the walls. His eyes narrowed and his pupils dilated as his own blood started flowing faster, harder, his mind racing. When at last the violence had calmed and he was chained, Leon stepped away from the monitor.

I have to know. He thought to himself. He walked up to the Chief, who had been standing far away from the scene as it happened. The Chief nodded at him. "Good job keeping an eye on the screen, in case something... bad would have happened."

"Bad?" Leon questioned cautiously.

"...yeah. Bad." The Chief pulled his coat closer to himself and didn't say any more.

Leon felt his own tension rising. "Sir, give me a chance to talk to him. I was at the scene, if it wasn't for him-"

"Wasn't for him? If it wasn't for him, you'd have been able to see the scene before contamination. You wouldn't have been injured or damaged, and you would have been able to do your job." The chief turned toward Leon. His face was indicating something. Lies. Leon could tell that the Chief knew something no one else here did, and suspected it in full. "Look, Leon, just leave hi alone for now. We'll get a specialist on this." The Chief said.

Leon nodded slowly. "Okay. Alright. I'll just watch the monitor then..."

The Chief nodded in agreement. "It won't be long, then we can put this behind us." He turned and walked out of the security monitor room, and down the hallway out of the holding complex.

Leon was now all alone.

Leon's hands gripped into fists. The chief knows something, his motions indicate a sudden defensiveness, not unlike a suspect under questioning. Additionally, the sudden brutality and need for a 'specialist'. This case is unique, and being hidden from the rest of the FBI.... Leon thought.

He walked up to the monitor pattern and reached for a nearby computer. He went to work on it, uploading a small script to keep the camera on a loop. He fed that into the digital camera's storage data now. "It was a bad idea to stop using hard film. Data is easily controlled." He muttered, before leaving the monitor room and going down the hall.

-------


*beep*

*clunk*

The door to the holding cell unlocked, and Leon cautiously stepped inside. He stood there, his figure dark in the back-lit hallway, and stared at Yumo. He was silent for a full minute, letting his precence be known, before he stepped into the room. He was careful to avoid any spots of blood. That much was obvious, blood was a danger here.

"Yumo Middleton." He said quietly. He stood there, thin, with sharp shoulders and a cold gaze. "May I call you Yumo?" He subsequently added. Such politeness was completely out of place in the situation.

Yumo sat there in the cell as silence disturbed him. Even as a child he couldn't stand silence, he hated it with a burning passion because silence brings out the paranoid in people and yumo hated being paranoid. As the silence began to get to him really bad the door opened and the silhouette of a man covered the table and wall in front of yumo. He stood there for a few seconds then walked into the room, carefully avoiding drips missed by the cops.

"May I call you Yumo?" The man asked and Yumo just looked at him as he was sprawled out onto the table like a slob lazily reaching for that one chip that was inches away.

" Yeah sure." He said as the man seemed to relax.

"Hey why did you pass out in the alley?" Yumo asked with a whole new brand of curiousity.

Silence. Stony silence. That was all that Leonhard Booth was giving Yumo in response from that question. It was almost sadistic, forcing the silence on the bound teen. Even a few more seconds of it was like a twist of the knife.

Finally, Leon stepped forward and let the door close behind him. He continued. "I don't know. But there is something I do know." His eyes narrowed as his fist clenched. "The pattern. On the walls. That was intended for you, wasn't it? From your 'cousin'?" He frowned. "I turned the monitor off. You're not being recorded. I want to know..."

Leon gulped.

"...who really killed that man?"

Yumo looked at the guy and smiled happily. He even gave a slight laugh.

"Well for starter there is a chance that those symbols were for me but i'm not tech savy and if you turn those symbols right side up then to it's left side they all make numbers. I'm not good a codes and stuff like I said but i'm assuming you are since you know that the message was for me. And as for who really killed that man it was, like I said, my cousin. I'm assuming the guy was trying to find me and once he did he was going to give my location away to him and have me killed. Now he's probably going to kill more people until he completes his message cause if I now him he's going to be super complicated cause he thinks he's superior and that what he can do everyone should be able to do." Yumo said rolling his eyes as he remembered his past.

Leonhard cleared this throat.

"Coordinates." He said simply. "They're coordinates, with each number hidden, transposed with another. No code. Just a relative location. I figured that out right away. But the blood...." He paused. "...that's not normal blood." He stepped forward cautiously. "And the blood in this room... it's not normal either. Not anymore." His eyes narrowed, and the room seemed to get darker. "Cut the bullshit. If I leave this room, in an hour, you will be taken to some far-off place in the government, never to be seen again. I can guarantee that. You're not the first unusual person I've seen disappear through this place."

His hand clenched, and for the first time in years, he spoke with conviction. Leon wanted something, and he was going to get it. "Tell me about your cousin. We can help you. We can stop the killings before they happen, but you have to let us help you. And to do that, I need to know everything that is going on, with you, and with him."

Yumo laughed at the man.
"You couldn't stop the killings if u wanted to. My cousin hates me because of my power. He has a supreme knowledge over tech and to add he is also full demon to My half. These killings also aren't at random. these killings are of people who failed him. Now you can help me by either finding and attempting to incapacitate him or u can decipher the tech stuff he leaves behind."

Demon? Leon thought to himself. Is he crazy? In shock? He frowned. The guy was a basket case, if he thought a demon was killing these people... well... that made him significantly less helpful. By mentioning 'demons' he pretty much sealed his fate now. Leonhard shook his head. This guy is insane... dammit....

Leonhard shook his head."No. I don't have to do any of that. Let me make myself clear..." He stepped forward, around, still avoiding any blood spots, so he could stand in view of Yumo. The darkness of the room covered his face from sight, however. "I'm the only thing between you and the government. And if we can't stop the killings, then you're completely useless to me.." He stepped away now, back towards the door. "Now, you have one last chance. You either give me what I want, or you let the rest of the FBI, who are far less sympathetic than I am, beat it out of you."

He sighed. "I'd be willing to allow them to do whatever they do to do you, at the risk of my own colleagues' health, and give up the chance to stop any subsequent murders. I can pay that price, all I lose is the chance to be a hero. But you? You can't really afford that, unless you're suicidal." His hands went into his pockets.

"And to drive the point home..." He gestured in front of him, at the table Yumo was tied to. "You're tied up in a secure facility, about to be shipped off to god-knows-where. You're not in a position to demand, or negotiate." He looked at his watch. "You have fifteen minutes before I have to be out of this room, and we will never see eachother again. No one else, I can guarantee that, can tell you what I know about those symbols. So you need me, but I don't need you.. Show me what you can offer me."

"Oh you want a show of my powers and an explanation huh." Yumo stated sadistically.

His face became dark as he looked at the chains on his arms. His body began to feel light and heavy at the same time.

"First off from the expression on your face you think i'm lying about demons so let me demonstrate my half demon capabilities." He said in a breaking voice that began to echo with a slight child like whisper. The lights began to flicker as energy licked around yumo. Two thick horns grew atop yumo's head and veins began to become more noticeable in his arms. I'm almost an instant the gauntlets were gone and he was free.

"If I wanted to escape I could but then all of the people in here who tried to stop me would suffer from it and that's one more problem I don't need." His normal voice was gone and a childs voice incased it on slightly letting his normal voice be heard.

Before he lost control though yumo reverted back to his human form. Yumo then continued to explain himself.

"I don't really care if you help me or not....let me rephrase...I would like your help but if you don't help then don't because eventually you'll die just like I might if you don't help me. Now you've seen what I can do and i'm just a HALF demon while my cousin is out there running rampant as a full demon. I will answer any questions you have as the event progresses now all you need to do is go and show me that I can trust you...so how bout it can you earn my trust and this beautiful piece of information i'm storing up here." Yumo pointed at his cranium and then put his hand out.

"And as for your previous comment I can stop him but not without help from someone who's tech savy. And this is not my first run in with the police...or the government, as a matter of fact I remember a certain chief in the area of my last fight haha almost killed him." Yumo laughed.