5 - The Crime Scene

The Puppeteer
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[CONTENTID1] The Puppeteer [/CONTENTID1]

 

[CONTENTID2] Five [/CONTENTID2] 

 

[CONTENTID3] [/CONTENTID3] 

 

[CONTENTID4] 

 

 

Even after two hours, Jeonghan still seemed a little dazed. 
Jisoo hadn't said a word about the vision he had done with Jeonghan, and the Controller stubbornly remained silent as well. The atmosphere between them seemed worse. Wonwoo had never doubted Jeonghan while stabilizing Jisoo´s mind, but he finally realized that the relationship between these two mutant species was more profound than he had thought. 
But he still didn't understand it. Without Jeonghan, Jisoo would not have been able to carry out the vision, so they would not have received the evidence and information. He understood Jisoo and Mingyu's skepticism and prejudices to a certain extent, but Jeonghan was a teammate. 
Mingyu and Jisoo were working on some information and Wonwoo saw the meeting room´s door open. Jeonghan entered with a coffee and Wonwoo waved towards him. Hesitantly, Jeonghan slowly approached him."What?" he asked.
"Sit down, I'll start with your part and download your data first," Wonwoo mumbled, and Jeonghan looked at him in surprise.
"My side? Jisoo is the one who found the last moments in her mind, not me."
"But you stabilized him. And you should have seen basically the same thing as Jisoo, just with a different approach. It is just interesting to see what or if you saw something from your perspective. After all we shouldn´t miss any information. Do you understand what I mean?" asked Wonwoo with a smile."No." replied Jeonghan and Wonwoo sighed.
"He's made up some nonsense about professionalism because he's basically just curious to see what you look like. Like a kid trying to peek down the chimney to see Santa Clause." Mingyu muttered behind Wonwoo and Jeonghan froze.
"Shut up, Mingyu." mewed Wonwoo angrily.

 


Jeonghan was confused.
Wonwoo had already said, done or demanded things a few times that were either too much, too little or too intimate for Jeonghan, but downloading data from a Controller out of curiosity was king class even for him.
"You know I'm a Controller? That I'm the one who gets inside people's heads. I'm the one who looks at things in your mind, evaluate them and can delete them if I feel like it. Or turn you into a complete idiot. Why the hell would you voluntarily get close to me if the information Jisoo could provide is enough?" Jeonghan snapped, hoping to scare Wonwoo away."Because you are part of our task force. You were involved in gathering evidence and the information and you as a teammate are valuable to me. Oh, and because I've installed a camera from the tattoo that's already recording. And if you refuse, I'll go to the boss and tell him about it." Wonwoo grinned at him.
Jeonghan stared at him, stunned. "You..."
Jisoo suddenly giggled beside him and Mingyu grinned.
Jeonghan was unexpectedly thrown off balance by the sound. At first, Wonwoo wasn't impressed by him at all, on the contrary, he was practically blackmailing him. Mingyu was still trying to hide his grin when he noticed Jeonghan's look and Jisoo fled back into a pile of documents.
Jeonghan panicked.
"I'm going to get some coffee," he stammered and left the room.

 

 

Wonwoo was confused. "What the hell happened? Did I say something wrong?"
Jisoo looked up from his papers. "You always say something wrong. As soon as you open your mouth, you're annoying."
"Not everyone thinks like that." Mingyu suddenly hissed and Wonwoo again had the feeling that he was just out of place as Jisoo and Mingyu stared at each other but Jisoo finally lowered his eyes.
"If you say so..." 
Wonwoo waited for a few seconds, but when none of his teammates moved to say anything, he stood up.
"I'll go and find him. I've probably put my foot in my mouth again. And since none of you have the decency to care about him, I'll do it."
Mingyu looked at him for a long time, groaned, and finally stood up. "You're getting on my nerves with your decorum lessons. Grab Jisoo and do the download; I'll take care of our controller."
"That's decent of you." Wonwoo grinned and looked at Jisoo.
"Hyung, are you coming? Then I'll do the download with you."
"Stop calling me hyung. Using a polite form is a human trait just because someone is older. Being older doesn't necessarily mean you have to be respected." Wonwoo got angry again. "Just come here and stop complaining."
While Mingyu was leaving the room, Jisoo ran to him. Wonwoo pointed to a chair before him and motioned for him to sit down.
Wonwoo shook his head. "Sit down. You might get a bit dizzy." "What will you do?" asked Jisoo, and Wonwoo looked after him curiously.
"Please take this cable. There's a little clip at the front, see? It just needs to go on your earlobe." 
Jisoo took the small cable Wonwoo gave him in his hand: "This activates certain neurons, and I can see them. Then, I download the data from your pupil. Or the plasma, in your case." 
"How does that work?" asked Jisoo.
"In principle, you could compare it to Mingyu's ability to dive into a mind and read it. But I need the physical connection to my transfer partner. There are special transmitters in the ink of my tattoo that can then download this data. Although you don't have pupils per se like a human being, the vision that has taken place in front of you remains in your plasma. You could compare it to a mirror. You look into it, and I turn the angle so that I can watch even though I'm not in the room," Wonwoo said, and Jisoo saw him open several files on the screen, and finally, a red dot started flashing on the screen.
"I don't understand," Jisoo mumbled but came closer as Wonwoo adjusted his head.
"Don't worry, just keep your eyes open. And don´t be surprised, I´ll get close to you. The distance between your plasma and my camera affects my download quality." Wonwoo chuckled, and Jisoo huffed in annoyance.
Wonwoo touched his tattoo, and he felt it getting hotter. He accessed the hard drive and opened a new file to begin the download.
Jisoo grinned. "You look like a lava lamp." 
"Shut up, idiot," Wonwoo smirked and adjusted Jisoo´s head slightly.
"Don´t move now, please."
Jisoo nodded.

 

Jeonghan needed to figure out where to go. He paced nervously in the kitchen, hoping no one would enter. Wonwoo had managed to tear a tiny hole in his emotional fabric for a moment, which hadn't happened for a good decade.
And Jeonghan didn't know how to deal with it. Wonwoo treated him almost painfully normal, like a normal mutant or like he treated Mingyu or Jisoo. It sent a shiver down Jeonghan's spine that someone, especially at Wonwoo's age as a human, had such an unshakable belief in a person's character rather than their lineage.
"If you run around here any longer, the chief must pay you mileage."
Jeonghan jumped when he suddenly heard a voice behind him. He stared at the mind reader, who suddenly stood beside him at the coffee pot and took a cup.
"Return to the meeting room when you're done with the marathon. Wonwoo just downloaded it from Jisoo, and as far as I know, you're probably next." Mingyu grumbled, and Jeonghan took two steps away from Mingyu. He wasn't used to people standing so close to him.
Before he could say anything clever, Mingyu turned and left the kitchen.
Jeonghan knew his behavior was childish. For years, he had hoped to be accepted, especially by his fellow officers. Until the incident with his partner, he had even built up a good reputation. Jeonghan looked up when he heard a knock on the open door.
"What the hell are you doing here? Get to work!" the chief snapped at him as he went to get coffee. Jeonghan sighed. 
"Chief, we need to talk. It's not going to work with me and the..."
"Yes, we'll talk after the case is solved. So get your arse back to the office and get to work. And don't give me that species crap again. My ex-wife was scarier than any controller, so don't try."
Jeonghan glared at him angrily but left the kitchen.

 

 

Wonwoo felt the particles in his tattoo connect with Jisoo's nerve pathways, opened the video file, and started downloading.
He hoped that Jisoo's vision would bring them new information. He had never downloaded a vision before, but he was sure that...

 

... she ran. She knew she would die if she stopped. She slipped several times as her feet mixed with the muddy ground she was barefoot on, trying to hold on as the rain fell like buckets from the sky.
And she knew the bastard was only letting her run because he allowed it, but her survival instincts screamed for anything that led away from him.
The girl gagged as she was pulled backward by her slave collar, a shadow looming over her and a searing pain in her thigh. She felt fingers in her hair as her head was brutally yanked backward. She felt the immense pressure he was applying to her neck.
"Please... please don't..." she whimpered, trying to make out the person above her, but all she could see was blackness.
"I've gone to so much trouble with you now, I'm not going to mess up the finale, and I can´t afford you to wiggle around and up my angle. Be a good girl and give the Deathcatcher number thirty-eight, yes?"
"I didn't do anything... Please let me go... Please..." she pleaded again.
"Oh, sweetie, I know. It's not fair, but it is what it is." the dark voice echoed in her head.
She saw a glowing object above her and a nasty giggle just before her head exploded in pain. A sticky warmth suddenly poured over the left side of her face, and she stared with her remaining eye at the eyeball the man over her had ripped out.
"Pretty, isn't it?" he asked in a murmur, and she cried out in panic as the same pain robbed her of her sight. A moment later, she felt her body hit the muddy ground and tried to move, but all the strength seemed to have drained from her body.
"Remember. Thirty-eight." She heard his voice before she grew cold, and her surroundings became quieter. And quieter... 

 

Mingyu couldn't react as quickly as Wonwoo suddenly fell backward from the chair and hit the floor, breathing heavily.
"F......What was that?" he whispered and stared at Jisoo in bewilderment.
"That is a vision of a Death Catcher. The Victim´s Last Moment. Did you expect a tea party? Do you think my ability is something pleasant?" growled Jisoo, and Mingyu grasped the situation." Was that your first Death Catcher Vision?" he asked Wonwoo, who still sat on the floor and looked utterly upset.
"Yes. That... is that how you always see it?"
"What do you mean, like this?" Jisoo asked casually, but Mingyu saw his black eyes flash white momentarily.
"That... felt like I'd been killed," Wonwoo muttered and groaned as he got to his feet. Mingyu thought about giving him a hand to pull him up. Still, he enjoyed the little misery before him, pretending that working with mutants was so calm and collapsing like a baby at the first practical experience.
Jisoo looked at him in confusion. "I see the victim's last thoughts. Not next to the victim or below or above the victim. I AM the victim because I see the last moments before me. Not mine, but the victim's."
"I'm sorry about that." Wonwoo suddenly whispered, and Mingyu looked up in surprise.
Jisoo looked at the Saver in confusion. "Don't be. It's my ability, and I'm just using it."
"Still, it takes a lot of willpower to see something like that and then process it to solve cases."
"For a human, maybe. For a mutant, this is what we can do. It is an ability, not something we whine or brag about."
"So it does not affect you to see young mutant girls getting their eyes ripped out of their heads, experiencing their pain and fear?" snapped Wonwoo at Jisoo.
Mingyu fired up immediately.
"Stop talking to him as if he doesn't care about these acts against victims. You don't know how our abilities work or what Jisoo's characteristics are in his job."
Wonwoo looked at him with the same mocking look as in the morgue.
"I don't know what your problem is again, but meddling is part of it."
"You..."
"Okay, stop. It's okay, let it go. I´ll solve that matter later." Jisoo mumbled next to him. Mingyu's opinion was very diff

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DJCyrus
#1
Chapter 11: You’re back! It’s been a while and I had to read the previous chapter to remind myself of what happened😅
Shinee2020 #2
Chapter 6: Are there new clues added? Should I reread it once you are all done to see any missing clues for future chapters to figure out who's the bad guy? ;)
friendstolovers18 #3
So cool!
friendstolovers18 #4
Wait wow the effort in this story
Ghad20
31 streak #5
Are you reposting the entire story ?
Shinee2020 #6
Happy New Year! :) Can't wait for you to get back to new chapters... ;)
Carat_Authornim
#7
Well we are revamping some things 😀😃🙂
DJCyrus
#8
Chapter 1: It’s like I’m reading for the first time haha
DJCyrus
#9
Chapter 37: Love the flow of the story, although I have to tell you that I was frustrated with Wonwoo for being a about the marking. I really really didn’t want to read their ‘second’ second date because I was convinced that he will screw it up again. Thank god he didn’t. Haha
On a side note, I wish they could’ve solved and figured out the stuff a little bit more with the clues they had.
Can’t wait to see if they can stop the killer this time with the help of vernon.
Lakanamihan
#10
Chapter 37: Chapter 37: Chapter 37: Yo ngl, the part with Vernon is confusing. I'm assuming he ended up like that bc a Controller messed him up, but that's all I can deduce with how the facts are presented. Also the system and worldbuilding with mutants doesn't make sense. Does proximity/parameter affect mind control and other such ability? Do they rely on focused/immediate contact? For example, this is my theory: since it is virtually an intangible ability, you cannot constrain it with physicality and direction, (I hope I can explain this well but bear with me) so you have essentially no bounds as to where it can reach, how far, and in which direction it will travel to--since no laws of physics is applied. Or am I wrong in seeing it like this? I am asking because I think this is essential to the plot: if you consider this aspect, some things regarding the case would be solved by now: logically speaking, they can do so much more than ordinary, no-superpower police officers. Also: I had to wonder, if this is 100 years into the future, would there have been more tech advancements by the time? Like, think of this: 100 years ago today was 1923, and everything else is so different and almost everything is accessible to us now that didn't use to be accessible to people in 1920s. The way I see it, the characters are still bound by lack of resources, police and suspect alike. I would think that the enslaved victims were trafficked by underground orgs, because it doesn't make sense that the killer would just pick them up randomly from the streets. (The iron collars proved this to be an organized thing, for one.) If that is the case, the officers could easily look into that as well. Or if the iron collars are personal branding thing by the killer themselves, then that could easily be the most solid piece of evidence. They can narrow it down to one individual, no? Since no other slave owner is branding slaves like that. Another thing was also the fact that the killer was in Danbi's apartment, should there not be surveillance footage that would capture him being there, even in the hallways or lobby at least? Some bases are not being covered, which makes it unnecessarily convoluted, and things and people are being added by them bringing seemingly new things that the old characters could have discovered themselves had they looked for things in a different manner.