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After the trial, Detective Matthews heads out to go and meet up with his partner. Detective Matthews is still somewhat confused about what she had meant when referring to the notion of going black. But without any more context he doesn't know what to make of the statement. They decide to go and get something to eat for the time being before going back to their desk. This way it's a bit more open for them to have a conversation about what he had found out without as much eaves dropping. Though when they got to the cafeteria and sat down it looks like a lot of the other officers are practically avoiding them altogether. Detective Matthews finds this to be extremely strange but doesn't really put much thought into it.

"So how was their trial?" Detective Ryan asks.

"As far as I can tell they were given a deal. Both her and the two humans pay a fine of ten grand for the assault and then that's that. But I got the impression from a lot of the others watching that this was effectively a big win in that they actually got some sort of punishment. So no real idea how they were apparently skirting the law in the past. But while there, I had managed to run in with our little fox Morph when I was watching their trial," he says as takes a moment to eat some of his burger.

"Oh? Is she doing okay?"

"As far as I was able to get is that she was afraid of something called the Black."

"And what does that mean?" Detective Ryan asks.

"No idea. But our means of communication was somewhat strained and I didn't have much time to really ask. But that's something else for us to think about."

They sit and eat mostly in silence, only speaking to ask about the latest shows and to greet some of the other officers. There is a definite sense from everyone else that something major has arrived at the station, but considering the date it's probably the FBI detachment that was supposedly being sent in to deal with the Underground. To which the two detectives don't really have much of an opinion either way. Everything they've seen so far implies that the departments themselves have a rather mixed opinion on the group. Some treat them as a useful group of vigilantes and others seem to hold them with the utmost contempt. When the detectives get back over to their desk they find someone new sitting on the edge of the desk, looking through a folder idly. Looking over there's another getting some coffee for the both of them. Detective Matthews walks up, curious as to who these two are.

"Can I help you?" Detective Matthews asks.

"Agent Chris Torr, FBI," he flips open a badge he had been holding in his pocket and hands it over. Detective Matthews looks it over but finding that it at least looks to be authentic. "We've been told that the two of you have been doing some digging into the Morph terrorist cell that are sometimes referred to as the Underground. Is that correct?"

"That is correct. We had a run-in with one of their members and as a direct result of our actions without meaning to had caused one to injure themselves. We had sought them out to try and get a follow-up on the status of that individual."

"Personally I wouldn't have bothered. Morphs are resilient little fuckers. Almost like cockroaches in a way," he says as his partner brings over his coffee. "This is Agent Smith, by the way. So what were you doing in Vitraan in the first place, if I may ask."

"We also have heard rumors that you've recently come in contact with a different member of their group, contacting them at their place of business. Is that correct?"

"Yeah, we are trying to work on a serial killer that's been causing us problems and I had found that the killer had been attacking Morphs before humans but stopped. I approached the Underground to see if perhaps they had any information that would be useful."

"Well, that's going to have to stop as of this moment. It simply won't do to have it become known that the government is acknowledging a terrorist group in such a manner. Especially as we are about to undertake a mission to take them all out once and for all. So we will be taking all of the information you have gathered on your current case and transferring it to someone else that we have cleared for such information. Further you will be moved onto a different case far away from Vitraan, so as to not give you any temptation to further associating with terrorists. And I don't think it needs mentioning but if you alert them of our attack you will be arrested and charged with interfering with a federal mission and aiding a designated terrorist cell," he says before quickly smiling and tapping him on the shoulder. "So relax, I think doing some work with real people will do you a lot of good and just enlighten yourselves on just how much worse those half-breeds really are. This is for the best of everyone and once they are gone we will be able to restore justice to the entire city for the first time in a long time."

One of the agents hands the two detectives a new case file and then walk off with everything they had been working on, including the files they had gotten from the archive. Detective Ryan stares at the file, very much confused as to what transpired. Particularly, the fact that just as they had actually started to get some headway to potentially have a lead they're removed from the case completely, and the case they're being given is almost beneath their notice, a missing pet located fifty miles away from Vitraan. The two detectives sit down in their chairs and let it all sink in what just happened. Eventually they get back up and head to their car to go work on the case they were assigned.

"Okay, so now what?" Detective Matthews asks.

"Well, I guess for now we go take case of this missing pet," Detective Ryan says in response. "But I get the distinct impression that we overstepped some sort of line and it has nothing to do with the Underground."

"What do you mean?"

"Well our case already had nothing to do with the Morphs other than the fact that the first cases fitting the description started in Vitraan. We were investigating human deaths outside of Vitraan. So why is it that they would take us off the case completely just because we asked the Underground to get what they had on the case?"

"So you're saying that there is some sort of conspiracy going on?"

"I'm definitely saying it's something suspicious. I think that after work I'm going to just go get a sandwich and take a seat at a bench in Vitraan," Detective Ryan says. "We were told not to tell them anything. But if they are aware of things as they seem to be then I can just go there, eat my meal and a packet of everything they had gotten will find its way to me without a single word spoken. And I highly doubt the FBI could accuse me of doing anything wrong."

"That still seems to be extremely dangerous in my opinion."

"Yeah, probably. And just in case I'm not going to tell you anymore. I want to know what's at the bottom of all of this. On if there is some conspiracy that our own government is covering for. So I'm just going to have to keep some secrets from you, after all. For plausible deniability and all."

"Though wouldn't just telling me about it make me an accomplice?"

"Perhaps. You could always just turn me in if you want. I won't stop you. But I'm finding out the truth, one way or another."

"I'm not going to just turn you in. That said I'm just going to go ahead and say I'm very reluctant to look further into this. If this is something where we had the FBI itself come and try to turn us away, I have to wonder just how bad it is and whether or not it's even a good idea to know what all is going on. Me I still want to see the murderer brought to justice. But you obviously can't just take their information into the precinct and I don't want it stashed in my place. So I'll leave it to you to decide if it's something that's too big for me to know."

Detective Ryan nods appreciatively as he looks over the case file they were given so that they can get this trivial case taken care of while the car drives itself to their destination.

After the trial, Alex and Angela ended up splitting up. There was some more paperwork to file that didn't need her there and she was uncomfortable enough with being there as it was that she just wanted to be out in the city again. She was given approval to do so and went to deposit Angela's laptop at one of the bases. Of course Richard pretty much made that task easier for her by practically running her down in his car and practically tearing it out of her hands when he started shouting at her and her not understanding what all he was saying. But it was just as well. After that the fox morph went about doing her usual rounds for a few hours and was heading back to her own place when she hears some humans talking very loud and a female of some sort seemingly in distress by the tone. Feeling curious she goes to investigate and finds three humans half surrounding a donkey Morph girl who is doing her best to try and get away from them. Alex doesn't like the situation one bit and so quickly taps out a quick little sequence against a nearby window and then approaches. They don't seem to be noticing her presence at all, instead focused entirely on the little girl, one of them making a gesture of grabbing their own crotch while another makes a grab for her chest as they practically pin her against a wall. Without hesitation as soon as Alex reaches them she grabs one of them by the back of his shirt and tosses him back, creating an opening. She follows up by grabbing the donkey morph by her arm and pulling her away from the humans and behind her. The girl makes some sort of noise at the treatment but recognizing her squeaks out a verbal signal implying thanks and then runs off. Alex half smiles in response but doesn't try to get away herself right away, instead interspersing herself so that one of the other three can't make a grab at the fleeing morph. All three humans reek of alcohol and are all fairly young, probably not even out of high school yet. Not that it excuses their actions but it does put her in the mindset to expect from them.

But not there's the issue of the fact that she's made herself be surrounded by three drunk humans. She tries to slowly distance herself from them, but also making sure that they can't just go and chase down the donkey Morph. She turns around quickly to make sure the girl has left and ends up taking her eyes of the three humans enough that when she turns back one of them clocks her right in the jaw, staggering her back a few feet. She quickly brings herself back to the situation and puts her arms up to try and protect her head and chest, but she dealing with three individuals and they start trying to surround her, making some sort of jeering comment by the tone. She tries to find a safe location to best protect herself and intentionally backs herself into a corner so that they can only attack from one direction. And that works at first, but then one of them simply grabs her and throws her forward, another tripping her in the process so that she loses her balance and falls down. The three of them begin to laugh and kick at her, which definitely hurts, though not as bad as the humans who attacked her last time. That time had malice, this was just drunk humans venting. Even still she curls up into a ball in order to try and protect as much as possible and also making sure that her tail is brought up to between her legs so that they don't get any ideas of trying to break it on her.

Alex considers whether or not to try and make a break for it again or just protect her vital organs until they get bored when she notices that all of them have immediately stopped attacking her. Curious, she hazards a look and finds that another Morph has stepped in and then she notices the scent and frowns. For Michael, beating these three back is child's play. Not only were they completely untrained, but they were also extremely drunk and were only human. He could easily have fought them all off in his sleep. But he's more interested in simply humiliating them than anything else, tearing at their clothes and when one overextends twist their bodies so that they go down to the ground. He's making an absolute mockery of them and eventually they catch on that he's just that much better than he is and they have no chance of beating him and then just run off, everything else forgotten.

Half growling, Michael moves up to and just grabs Alex by the scruff of her neck and starts dragging her along the ground. She quickly makes sounds with the intention of protesting but he just ignores her, pulling on her neck a bit tighter to try and keep her in line. Eventually she is able to get her feet underneath herself and stands up, pushing against him a bit to create a bit of distance. And his eyes don't really show any real hostility to her, or any real emotion whatsoever outside of disappointment.

'You're too weak,' he signs at her, causing her to just flip him off. He blinks at her slowly before continuing. 'They should have been no threat to you. You need to stop just being a victim and allowing any random human to just take advantage of you like that.' He kicks at her, not with enough force to actually harm but enough to get her to begin moving away from him a bit more. 'Why are you even going home? You have a Scout meeting soon. Now because of your incompetence, you need to go back to base, make sure your wounds are treated so you don't get another infection from being retarded. And then get to your meeting."

She scowls at him but he turns around and walks off. There are a few people looking out of windows and Alex considers for a moment on whether or not to just disobey him and either just go back to her home anyway or go to the meeting without being treated but after considering it for a moment, the only reason she'd be doing it is to be contrary and the only one she'd really be hurting by doing so is herself. Michael wouldn't really care so long as she did show up at the meeting and if he did express his thoughts on it he'd probably be abusive. And so begrudgingly she turns around and heads back to base first in order to get treated. And of course it would put her close to where the meeting would be held anyway so there is that. The only reason she was intending on going home first was so that she could get a change of clothes and potentially a bite to eat on her way to the meeting. It's not like they have to return to the base at every point as that is part of the reason for the meetings to begin with. Thankfully, getting treated was fairly straight forward. She didn't really take much of any injuries. They didn't even go so far as to bandage her up any which was nice enough, though pouring some rubbing alcohol on the scrapes she did get did definitely sting quite a bit. But it was just as well. Then it was off to go to a location in Vitraan that changed every time they had the meetings. The location was always rotated around so that it'd be harder to spy on them, but central enough that they could all reach and talk freely. More often than not they could find it just knowing the general location and then the townsfolk would point them at the specific location. The handlers would always pick the exact location the night of and tell some people they trusted where it was. Sometimes it was under a bridge, sometimes in an abandoned building or a roof or even a couple of times in a diner. This time it's just an empty bit of pavement next to a park.

Alex was always somewhat uncomfortable when it came to the scout meetings. Mostly because it was very obvious to all of them that though they were all on the same side and working for the same organization there are effectively two different groups that don't really interact all that much. The majority of them were a part of the group from the beginning, interested primarily in helping other Morphs. And then there are some that came later that are more interested in stopping the abductions. Of course, even with some of the original group there is a bit of awkwardness in dealing with them. Many of them knew of her circumstances and were always conflicted at how best to interact with her, especially since not all of them actually knew sign language or any other way to communicate with her outside of writing notes. But meetings like these were definitely necessary, she couldn't deny that. They all worked best when they were coordinated, able to pass on any judgements and decisions and know who will be covering which areas. If one area started to have more problems than normal additional, scouts would be moved there to account for the extra risk. Further, half of the scouts never actually reported into the base. There were quite a few, even, that almost never actually openly associated with their group so as to avoid police suspicion. It always paid to not have someone that's a constant annoyance and frequently trying to impede against them know who all their pieces are. Not to mention the more people moving in and out of a base, the more likely it would be discovered.

Of course if their main base was fully discovered it would be a serious blow to the group. Not so much the personnel. Michael would get away easily enough unless they caught him flat footed, which would never happen. What concerns her the most is that if their base was being attacked, would Michael have the presence of mind to be able to get Noah out of there as well or if he'd leave him behind to stall them? And once the meeting actually started, Alex would only really watch Ben because he simply got into the habit of being the one to translate all of everyone's dialog into sign language for her. The start of every meeting is just the usual run of things, everyone sharing any problem cases to be aware of. Alex does mention the three humans she faced earlier but remarks that as they were mainly just drunks they likely wouldn't be all that much trouble in the future. But still worth keeping an eye out. More importantly, a couple of the other areas had recently seen signs of snatchers running around trying to isolate and abduct people again.

"I think it best if we just come out and talk about it right now," a mouse morph says, this one apparently being a former baseball player before converting. Though they arrived after Michael, they still aligned more with the original group and was always trying to push forward with their ideals. "The FBI has shown up and I'm sure we all know what that means. They likely have all of our faces and names and likely will launch a raid sometime soon. So the most important thing to think about is how do we best decide what to do about them.

"It's nothing to be concerned about," a badger morph speaks up, this one being Michael's favorite and was the one that had joined when Michael did. Alex didn't know much about him other than like Michael and Richard he originally served in the military. "There is already a plan in place. There is nothing to be concerned about. Everyone is going to need to take a more passive stance for the next few days until the FBI has made their move." He reaches into a pocket and pulls out a few slips of paper and hands it to the other handlers. "Here's a list of instructions each person will be expected to take on top of their normal duties. There is no reason to panic at this time, everything is going according to plan."

There is some grumbling from many of the scouts for having been left in the dark to the extent of this plan, but mostly these come from the original group. When the badger reaches Alex, instead of handing it to her he just drops it at her feet at moves on. One of the other scouts has the decency to pick it up for her as she stares daggers after the badger. She nods a thanks at the jay morph and opens up her document to see what it says, not really seeing any point in hiding anything from this group. Though like the rest of the original group, she doesn't really like what is written on it. It's definitely not a plan that would have been enacted back when Noah was his old self. But unfortunately, she doesn't have the authority to really do anything about it. But since her next shift isn't until the next morning and there isn't really anything at all that requires her focus for the most part she spends some time socializing with some of the other original scouts as best she can, with Ben sometimes helping her with translations and then once all of Michael's group has left she says her goodbyes and heads off to her own place to get some sleep.