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Richard opens the door to the interior of the base after having scanned his own blood. It had been a fairly long couple of days for him, having to constantly check to make sure they weren't being followed by anyone trying to recapture her. And then there was the matter of getting her calmed down and to a place of safety where she can live her life at least with some protection still. Can't guarantee she won't get recaptured in the future but it's the most their group can manage. And after all that he's looking forward to being able to give his report and then wind down for a bit. He goes to put away the scanner he had brought and when he enters the main room he notices that Alex is currently sitting at the computer, currently engrossed in whatever she's doing. He frowns at the sight, especially since no one else seems to be in the room and marches over to her.

"Who let the bitch on the computer?" he demands as he kicks at her chair, sending her toppling over. He places the scanner on the desk in case he needs to enforce a bit of discipline. "You know the rules. You're not allowed to even touch our computers."

Alex just stares at him in shock and covers her face, but makes no motion of responding to his comments. It was something that always pissed him off about her. That she kept up this act of being unable to hear and everyone buying it without any evidence to support such a claim. Many have even gone so far as to learn sign language for her. All just an act to let them all let her do whatever she wants and Richard had declared to himself to never let her trick him in that way. He wouldn't fall for that. She was a liability and worse than that a threat to their entire mission. She had made no secret of the fact that she wished the demise of their leader, but for whatever reason Michael has made no action against such information. And though he was unable to convince the others they would be better off with her out of the picture, the fact of the matter was it was against their own policy for her to have access to their own computers. Far too likely to endanger everything. And so he felt perfectly justified in enforcing that policy.

Likely in response to the shouting Dylan walks into the room, holding a cup of tea. The rat morph looks casually at the scene, showing no more of a reaction to the fact Alex was on the ground as Richard shouting. It was always something that Richard hated about Dylan, the rat showed no real emotion to anything that went on, just kept carrying on the mission without a single word in response. Top that off with him being rather disrespectful to pretty much anyone of Michael's group with the exception of Michael always put Richard on a short fuse with him. And with Dylan being the one in charge of every one of their handlers and scouts he had enough authority that Richard couldn't really do anything about it, even if Dylan had no authority over him.

"Relax," Dylan says, moving to take a nearby seat. "I've been watching her. Just had to step out for a moment to get my tea," he snaps a finger a few times to get Alex's attention then gestures that she can resume what she was doing. "She's been authorized to use the computer for this one time," Richard frowns as Alex pretty much looks at him warily but chooses to listen to Dylan's instruction, rather than respect him. She reluctantly stands up again, rubbing at the spot where she had hit the ground. She then grabs the chair and moves it cautiously back into place. She sits down but doesn't immediately return to what she was doing, waiting to see if Richard was going to attack her again or not. He huffs in response but doesn't take any action, at least not until he's learned why they were doing this foolishness. At seeing no attack she returns to the computer and puts her hands on the input board. "She was grabbed recently by a couple of cops a few days ago. She escaped but injured herself in the process. She passed the door so she's still clean. But Michael decided that it's best for her peace of mind that she be the one to go about investigating them to know whether or not they are grabbers or were genuine that just grabbed her for some other reason. I'm sure you can appreciate the merit in doing such a search."

"Doesn't mean she should be the one to do it. If anything, you or Trevor should be the one doing the check. That is kind of your thing after all."

"She's doing it as a form of therapy," a new voice speaks up, Richard turning to face the fox morph walking in from a side-room. Michael always took such pains to keep his fur coat looking healthy, a practice Richard never really shared. But being fastidious about grooming was never anything that lowered his opinion of someone, especially not with everything else Michael had done to prove he's worthy of respect. "What's your report?"

"Found the facility," Richard shrugs, picking up the scanner again and then kicking Alex's chair leg again as he passes, though not hard enough to actually kick the chair out from under her. "Trashed the place as best I could. Found some kept captive and escorted them all out. Only one wasn't Black, though. The rest won't be a problem to anyone else any more. Can't tell how long ago they were turned. The doc's device doesn't really say how bad, just if bad. Anyway, took the girl to a safe house for a day to make sure no one was chasing and then helped her find a halfway house to stay in."

"That's unfortunate. Was really hoping for more than that. Oh well, guess we have to work with what we got," he says before making a high pitched whistle to get Alex's attention. He then signs at her, 'What'd you find?'

'Clueless,' she signs back, after sitting back from the chair. Richard half-growls at this. Since that'd mean she likely could have been done for a while now and then was left completely unsupervised and could have been doing who knows what on it that could ruin everything. Definitely a liability and should never have been allowed on the computer.

'That all?'

'It was their first time in city. Strictly human only cops. Never interact with us before.'

'Guess we can take them off the watch list, then.' He then turns to Dylan, "I don't know why they were in our home out of nowhere. I want you to have all the scouts keep an eye out for them in case they arrive again. No need to alert the public. But I want to know what they're doing if they show up again."

"Well, your job's done, so off the fucking computer," Richard says, kicking the chair Alex is sitting on away from the command console.

Alex manages to stay on the chair this time and looks accusingly at Richard before turning to Michael. Michael shrugs and then signs at her, 'get to your rounds. You've been slacking off lately.'

Alex responds by flipping him off and then crossing her thumb across her throat at him. His response is to sign back at her 'not yet' and then waves with a grin on her face before pointing at the door.

"It's not smart to keep her around. You know she'll eventually try to kill you, right?"

"Yeah, I know," Michael shrugs, watching Alex head back over to let Noah know that she's heading out. "But that isn't any of your business how I handle myself with the group, now is it?"

"I think whether or not there is a viable threat to our organization's leadership should very much be my business."

"And I'm saying that she is none of your concern and you are to take no action against her," Michael states forcefully, even going so far as to walk up and stare at the larger wolf. Richard seems to seethe for a moment or two before swinging out and striking at a metal wall nearby, denting it slightly. But he turns around and walks out, "I'm going out for my rounds." Richard tosses the scanner at Dylan before doing so, scowling as the rat not only manages to catch it one handed but doesn't even spill any of his tea, and still gives no reaction to the act.

Michael watches him walk off as Dylan hops on the computer to get a more thorough examination regarding the two detectives than what little Alex had signed at them. Angela walks in from having hung back around the side of the next room over, the squirrel morph watching Alex finally start to limp out of the base.

"He's not wrong you know. After everything she will eventually try to kill you," she says.

"I know," the fox morph says back. "She understands the importance of what we do so she won't act until we're done. And after everything, could you really blame her?"

Back at the station the two Detectives park their car and head on in and head over to their desk, considering their next course of action. Thankfully there doesn't seem to be any major cases that they need to be working on. It is always nice to occasionally have a nice, quiet afternoon where they can work on their reports and not have to rack their brains trying to find some killer that's started going around. They still do have a few ongoing cases but a lot of these have pretty much been running into dead ends. Similarly, the assault victims for that one fox morph that they saw the other day is left unresolved. There is definitely something going on that they aren't aware of, that much is clear to the two of them.

"I've been thinking," Detective Ryan says, causing the other to turn in his direction. "About that Underground group. If they have been repeatedly arrested for crimes then Archives should know a few things about them. Perhaps knowing how it is that such a group operating for so long against the law with such impunity might help us figure out how it is that these killers are also managing to completely evade justice."

"Well the killers to our cases have gotten away with it not by exploiting some trick or another but rather by the simple effect of us not having enough evidence to conclusively indicate that anyone is the culprit. But I suppose a change in perspective could be useful."

With that the two detectives stand up and head to the elevator, going down to where the secure vault is located. From experience most of the Archives department in most other precincts are watched and looked after, but those pale in comparison to the measures taken to this one are almost extreme. It came across as them seemingly trying to look up top secret information, not just some information that any cop can get access to. Not only that the clerk doesn't seem to be on a computer of any sort but rather sitting next to a file cabinet, a remnant of the past and almost never seen in the modern era. Especially since everything on the main floor and everything they personally use is rather modern and up to date. And it couldn't be because this area lacked funds. There'd be a much larger criticism if it did and the clerk looked impartial rather than resigned. They even had to scan their badges to get through a locked door to even get down here.

"Why is all of the evidence being kept by way of a file cabinet?" Detective Ryan asks, trying to figure things out.

"Technically it's not," the clerk responds. "I have a little tablet that I can use to find things a lot easier. There isn't any reason things can't be on a computer. It's just that nothing that that computer has to be rendered unable to connect to any network or have any outside access to it. And then only certain people have been authorized to be able to have access to these devices. The file cabinets are here mostly for show or for anyone that hasn't been proven trustworthy with access to all of the evidence that has been thus far collected. That and I suppose it also serves as a very useful backup in case the computer did get stolen or tampered with. But as you aren't aware of this information already I will not be showing you said computer and rely solely on the file cabinet. Far less chance of something going wrong.

"Is all of this extra precaution all that necessary?" Detective Matthews asks.

"Well when you consider the fact that information keeps getting compromised, the police chief felt it was more than justified to more effectively secure this location," the clerk says from behind his desk. "Not that it has really helped. The animals seem to be able to get at our systems regardless of how many steps we take to keep them out of it. We don't even let any them down into this area, simply as a precaution. They still get at it anyway. Anyway, enough of that, what can I help you two with."

"So what can you tell me about the Morph Underground group?" Detective Ryan asks.

"You mean the terrorist organization that is our captain's number one complaint? I'm honestly surprised you haven't been chewed out multiple times for not bearing down on them in your time here," the records clerk responds.

"We're normally assigned to human cases. We're almost never in Morph territory."

"Guess you pissed someone off then to be dealing with the subhumans, huh? Anyway, there's not much to tell. They're a domestic terrorist cell that feel themselves above the law and beholden to no one but themselves. You name it, they've probably done it."

"And have there been any arrests?"

"Oh, all the time. Some of them are here every other week on some charge or other, especially that wolf of theirs. He's been arrested so many times for assault and murder so many times he's on a first name basis with most of the legal staff."

"Murder? How are they not in prison then?"

"Well, that's just what you get when the justice system is broken. They have an animal lawyer with them that will get a lot of the evidence simply dismissed. And any evidence we do get that would be perfectly admissible gets ruined. They have a hacker on their group, the weasel I believe. We can't use any digital information connected to the network because it'll just be deleted. And we're way down here because even with that precaution evidence still gets tampered with. Data is still being deleted. Physical evidence goes missing. And that hacker is good enough we can't even prove that they're even doing it so that we can have them arrested. Add the fact they are required to be given a jury of their peers, which means having a group that Morphs go out of their way to defend and ask them to put one of that group behind bars without any usable evidence. They're so used to us going after them they have it drilled into every one of them that the moment they see a badge, immediately stop fighting and go quietly. They'll get out soon enough. Regardless of what we do to try and put them to justice they'll be out within a month. Best we've managed is to just slow them down a bit. And all of that has Black Industries furious."

"Why would Black Industries be upset at them, aren't they the ones usually handling conversions?" Matthiews asks.

"Well they are, but they are also the leading manufacturer of the Synthetic Morphs. And one of the most common things this group of terrorists do is destroy just about any of the synthetic morphs they come across that are just going about their day, trying to blend in with society. I'm sure they have some reason, like the synthetics taking the jobs that should go to those sub-humans. I'm not buying it, though. I hear that they're trying to even go so far as to get the government to step in and take care of them. It can't exactly look all that good for the governor for them to be completely unable to do anything about this group. Personally, though, I think we'd all be just a lot better off if instead of locking them up for a little bit every now and then we actually went about finishing the job and putting the lot of them down like the animals they are. It's not like they'll ever learn to not mess with the law any other way. They even have gone and gotten the FBI involved."

"Really, I hadn't heard about that."

"Well you did say you were on the human sector. There's really no reason for it to at all matter us real people. But they are considered domestic terrorists so they're going to have an operation soon trying to take down the group once and for all. And about time too, if you ask me."

"Though there is a case we are working on for the human side of things. Do you have any information about any homicides in the past that dealt with an injection in the neck with absolutely no other evidence left behind at the scene of the crime?"

"Trying to earn your way back into regular policework, eh. Anyway, I should have some files on that. You're not going to earn any favors on that route, though. Way too many officers from even out of state have come trying to piece that one together and nothing has ever come of it. It's not even local, either. Apparently, that kind of crime is going on all throughout the country." He says while heading into the back and then coming back a moment later with a large box of files. "I keep this one marked for the next person trying to cut their teeth on it."

"Do we need to check any of this out or do we have to read it all here?"

"Well, I'll need to have you sign it, but this information isn't considered all that significant to protect. We have backups of this already. And there's so much that hasn't gotten anywhere that there'd be no point in them tampering with this information."

Detective Matthews moves forward to add his signature to the file and the two of them take the box and head back upstairs with the box. The two of them begin going through all of the case files, though as the clerk had said they are unable to find anything conclusive about the case. It does end up matching the case they're trying to deal with almost perfectly. Even to the extent of the location of the injection. And like their own case, every single one has no useable evidence. No fingerprints, no DNA evidence. The syringes all had their serial numbers completely removed in the exact same manner. There weren't even any footprints in any of the cases. However, there is something that is at least somewhat useful. The oldest of the cases were with Morphs. They all had the exact same circumstances. But then eventually it started to shift over to human victims and not on the Morph victims. Meaning that they perfected their technique and went on to human targets rather than Morph targets. But that does give them some place to start. It would mean that whoever did this is someone that can freely move between the human and Morph sectors.

"You know, I just had a thought," Detective Matthews says as he puts down one of the case files. "From these we now know that the crimes started in the Morph sector. And vigilante or not, it's safe to say that the Underground is interested in policing all crimes that happen to the Morphs. This should mean that the Morphs should have been doing something to try and bring these culprits to justice."

"So you're saying that the Underground would possibly have a clue as to how these crimes were carried out?"

"Perhaps. Might even be why they went over to humans. If it was me and a vigilante group became hard on my heels and I knew that they wouldn't bat an eye on attacking humans. But then the question is how do we get a hold of one of them? I doubt the undercover would hook us up with an interview. And they didn't seem the type to be all that conversant with us in general."

"Well there is that tiger morph. He should recognize us enough. And if they're constantly being arrested then their information should still be in the system. So we can simply look him up, get a place of business or residence and go ask politely what all he can tell us about the cases we're tracking. And that in itself should help us get a lead on how to proceed. Of course based on how everything around here is going I doubt we should be all that forthcoming about us doing this, at least until we have proof to verify any information they give."

Detective Ryan types into his own personal computer looking up various tiger morphs that have been arrested and detained recently, not having their name to look up their full name. And since there aren't too many tiger morphs that have been arrested recently, let alone ones that have been arrested on a fairly regular basis it doesn't take all that much before they're able to discern who he is and where they can likely find him. They don't have any home address, likely the result of him staying at the Underground's base of operations. But they do have a place of business. It seems even with him working with the Underground he has a regular job at a night club. Meaning they do have a means to get at him.