Raider's of the Lost Ark [Team Soul Society] ❷✗

[Ranth]

Two days ago, a strange phenomenon had been detected by the nerds in Squad 12. As per usual, rather than do anything about it themselves they had instead passed the buck on to squad 11 to investigate. Squad 11 had, in turn, passed the buck to squad 1 and then squad 1 had passed the buck on to squad 6 and so on and so forth until eventually, it was decided that the only fair way to approach the issue was for every squad involved to send one person. As a result, a team of three were sent to the South Pole to investigate representing Squad 7, Squad 13 and the Omnitskudo. They weren't the best and they weren't the brightest, but they should have been good enough for the job... yet soon after arrival, all contact had been lost.

As a result, a backup squad had been hastily arranged by the same squads whose members were missing. One person from Squad 13... one person from the Omnitskudo... and two people from Squad 7. Why had squad 7 sent two people? You're a thousand years too early to ask such a question, for one does not simply question Rin Minamimoto. Regardless of the who and the why, a team of 4 were sent to the South Pole to investigate the disappearance of the squad who had been sent to investigate the appearance of the mysterious phenomenon.

Upon stepping through the Senkaimon, the team would find themselves in front of a small outpost which had been built by humans, but would seem to be abandoned- at least for now. As far as the eye could see in every direction, vast white tundra was all they would see. Freezing winds would pull at their hair and sting any and all exposed skin with tiny shards of ice.

Inside the outpost- if they chose to enter- they would find that the electricity still worked and that it was well stocked with supplies ranging from food and water to appropriate clothing and medicinal supplies. The outpost consisted of four main areas: Sleeping Quarters, Computer Lab, Kitchen/ Dining Area and Toilet. Four places to investigate... Four members of the squad. What a funny coincidence.

OOC: You may describe each area however you wish- the first person to describe a detail locks that detail in for everyone else who posts after them. Initially, you will all be able to tell that this place was recently inhabited. My post will detail the results of your search- so be thorough!

[Deleted]

[[ooc: the toilet? lol cya]]

“Quite chilly, isn’t it~?”

Don’t answer that because she wasn’t. Rin was absolutely fine. Fashion was rather important to an Empress. It was important to keep up with the times but it equally as important to be stylish in every season. Rin Minamimoto knew she was off to the arctic and so, she would prepare herself accordingly. Rin showed up in a black mink fur coat and a dark red fox fur scarf. It was so soft that anyone would’ve thought that they were touching a cloud. Her waist was belted and cinched and her hands and legs were covered in black leather gloves and tall snow boots. Her pants were just as warm as her coat and was a very dark, bloody red. There wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell she was showing up ill prepared for this.

Of course, Rin did not come to the Arctic alone. Oh. Heaven’s no. Of course she dragged Kaen along. “I’m sure you’re wishing you didn’t do “Get Help” now, ne~?” Rin seemed sweet enough but Kaen knows better than that. She branded the delighted smile of a royal who loved all. Her tone said otherwise. There was great annoyance in it as she recalled how they got to this point in the first place. To anyone listening, it was apparent that it wasn’t a choice for the third seat. He’s here because she is and that was final. Empresses orders!

Still, she was kind, benevolent and Soul King’s gift to all. It was only natural she acted accordingly. So, she’d pull off her furry scarf and hand it over to the brunette, offering him a small genuine smile. “Stay warm., my dear. Fox is quite warm~” she said quietly. It was those small acts of kindness that many seldom saw and was really only meant for him as well as a few others. As soon as he accepted it, her expression dropped into her usual stern, regal facade as she reminded herself that they weren’t alone. They were accompanied by officers of other squads as well and so, the Empress’s kindness would be short lived!

She found herself at an outpost and, because she didn’t sense anything, she entered boldly. Her hand rested on her zanpakuto which hung loosely on her hip. The empress stalked around until she saw a faint glow coming from one of the rooms. She was drawn to it and eventually found herself at a computer lab. She turned the lights on, inspecting the room first before proceeding. The room was in fairly good condition and the computers appeared to be operational. Her eyes soon locked on with one particular computer screen where there was a disgusting little sheep displayed on one of the screens. Rin found herself compelled to the fluffy, abominable animal on the screen momentarily. She would examine it for a moment and determine it was nothing of importance and close out of the window. Whoever was here last was clearly insane.

[Wycliff]

It was cold, damn it it was fucking cold here. Wycliff let out a heavy sigh as he looked out at the arctic base. Somehow his name had been used when recommended to go for this frozen mission instead of investigating why there was a massive spike in booze sales during spring break in Florida. Man that mission would have been great, going undercover, spending all day at the beach, drinking with a bunch of party people, but nooooooo he had to be here in the frozen wasteland of bumfuck nowhere. How had this happened? Well he had one idea, and it was a good one. Rin, she must have done this, but he really wasn't that upset at her, after all what they had done to her, well if this was the result of her wrath he would be fine.


In the cold oddly enough his zan spoke to him. Ahh, this feels familiar, it feels right, don't you agree? Wycliff was simply stunned at this comment. Normally his blade only spoke about spreading his bliss and allowing others to enjoy his drug and nothing else, but here he was speaking of frost and wind being familiar. Something was up with his zan and possibly this place. Either way he wanted to get this over with, Rin had taken charge, so he decided to follow after. She had gone to the computer room, he he had another idea for where he wanted to check out.

The kitchen, a kitchen can tell you a lot about what was going on. He stepped onto the linoleum floor of the kitchen with it's horrid green and white pattern. The dinning room was built into the kitchen, only a small table enough for everyone who lived at the base to sit down. The first thing he noticed was that dinner was still severed. Plates of food were still there, the food was cold, but he wasn't sure if that was due to this whole place being cold, or if the food had been sitting around for a while. Knowing that something forced the people out of the kitchen Wycliff decided to take a look at the cabinets and refrigerator seeing what food was still left and what he could find. The rest of the kitchen seemed to be rather simple, a stove, some cabinets, a refrigerator and a microwave.

[☾ Aevus | Umbra ☽]

(I didn’t get the toilet either! Good posting motivation Ranth lmao.)

Aevus had let out a heavy sigh when the news came to him. Another member of his squad was missing. It was common in his line of work. Hearing the bad news was so very common. Yet he could never get used to it. No matter how well trained the Onmitsukido were, there always seemed to a few less faces at the end of the month. They were assassins after all. It should have been obvious, the risk that came with their line of work. If you died while on a job, that was on you. Your name was practically erased and any information on you was sealed away for confidentiality.

Typically another of his squad was sent on the same mission days later. But this time he personally took it upon himself. Not only had he grown annoyed from seeing less and less faces among his squad, but there was also the fact that a body hadn’t yet been found. It was far too normal for an MIA to turn into a KIA. Typically they didn’t even have to find the body to come to that conclusion. But if there was a chance that his squadmate was still alive, he was more than willing to do something about it.

He felt a cool breeze as he walked through the Senkaimon. He had been warned to dress warm but he simply brushed it aside. He would come to quickly regret that decision. It was colder than he thought it’d be. He felt a shiver run up and down his entire body, causing the man to pull up his hood in turn. He was used to the cold but something like this? He had definitely come ill prepared. Sandaled feet drifted across the snow. His Wolven Spirit sauntered at his side. Her furs danced gently in the wind. While the snows around her acted as the perfect camouflage for her snow-white silhouette.

“Aevus this place-” Lumina’s silver eyes widened like two full moons. She began to prance around playfully like she was but a puppy. Sending up fluffs of snow as she danced around the Reaper. Her tail would wag as if a flag caught in a hurricane. “-Isn’t it wonderful!?" She’d look up at Aevus with eager silver eyes. “Yeah... that’s one way to put it.” Aevus murmured trying to prevent his teeth from chattering. Lumina gave a wolfish grin before returning to his side. “You know? you wouldn’t be cold if you had fur like me.”

Aevus nearly rolled his eyes, yet he was curious. “Now that would be strange... What color do you think my fur would be?" His Spirit giggled not even pondering the thought. “Black of course. But maybe that’d be a bad idea." His blue eyes would shelter the small outpost before them. A moment of silence befell the two as he entered the building. “Heh what makes you say that?” Aevus would ask as he removed his hood. His bed head was much more apparent as he looked down at his Zanpakuto Spirt. So much, that she couldn’t help but laugh. “On second thought, fur would suite you very much so.”

Upon entering the sleeping quarters Aevus couldn’t help but sigh when he saw the room. There were several beds and two rows of them spread on the left and right side of the room. And lined aside each of the beds was a separate dresser. Overall it was quite a large room and Aevus would sigh once more just thinking about how annoying it’d be to investigate the entire place. Lumina began to sniff around, looking under each of the beds on the right side. While Aevus took it upon himself to check the left. When Aevus came across the last bed, it took all his willpower to stop himself from flopping down on the mattress. Oh how he wanted to hide under those covers to get away from this cold place. He managed to stop himself but when he looked back across the room, he’d see Lumina already laying herself down on the blanket.

“Lumina...”

[Kaen Youji]

(ooc: Sorry, didn't have time to appropriately edit this for Kaen's to check the remaining room. Edited to account for the previous post, however).

Friggin’ cold. Why did it have to be so friggin’ cold!? Kaen hated the cold. So much. And well…. Here he was. In the frigging arctic! Or some place like it. Human World geography wasn’t his strong point. Obviously, he knew the major nations and all that. The United States, Japan, England and so on and so-forth. But there were a lot of snowy places on Earth and he had no idea which one he’d walked out into. Only that it was frigging cold. The last time he’d been in a place like this, he’d been alongside Anastasia Solis and Shade Kawada, investigating the resurgence of the Vandenreich and checking out one of their fortresses. Only this time there wasn’t a magic cow that’d keep them warm. Damnit. And releasing his shikai off the bat, right now, just to generate some heat was probably not acceptable behavior for a ranking officer of the seventh squad (“No Bankai!” aside, there were probably policies about unleashing one’s Zanpakuto for purely mundane tasks like that unless ordered by a superior officer and all).

And it wasn’t like Kaen was dressed for the cold either. …Nnnope. He was pretty much dressed in his usual attire. What did that mean? Light, somewhat loose-fitting clothing and a sleeveless gi. Yeah. Sleeveless. In the middle of an iced over base in the human world. Brilliant stratagem, to be sure /s. The closest thing Kaen had brought to proper winter gear was appropriate winter boots in place of his usual Shinigami sandals. The third seat had thrown both arms around his torso and was shivering in the cold. ”Wh-wh-wh-whose idea w-was it for me to t-t-t-tag along on this one again?” He asked, as flurries flew in his face, and covered the left side of his head in a light dusting of snow. He was tempted to try brushing it away, but that would require moving his hands away from holding onto his torso to try to trap whatever heat he could. Thank the Soul King he’d neglected to bring his chainmail vest. Frozen steel on skin would probably have been much, much worse. But returning to his original point. Whose idea was it to drag him along on this one!?

”Quite chilly isn’t it?”

Oh right. Her.

In hindsight, going along with Get Help, while Kaen was directly under Rin’s command, had probably been a bad idea. Ranth and Wycliff had probably gotten off easily due to being affiliated with other squads, but Kaen was, by his own position, pretty much forced to deal with the angry Empress. He’d been thrown into a ton of different tasks since then, to try and appease the furious Empress, and had been working in a state of near perpetual exhaustion and terror. And now that they were here, it looked like she had at least prepared well for the cold. Unlike him. And damnit if she wasn’t being smug about it. Unfortunately, Kaen was too damned cold to even shoot Rin a look to express his own discontent—not that she’d probably have cared, in fact she would probably have been pleased with it, given the episode with Get Help. As if reading the third seat’s thoughts, Rin chose that moment to add in: ”I’m sure you’re wishing you didn’t do “Get Help” now, ne~?”

Grrrr……. A statement Kaen had no immediate response to. Damnit, this was turning out to be a bad day, even if he did get to go alongside the Empress. Normally a mission alongside Rin would have been interesting and awesome, and he’d have been hyped for it! But the cold weather was putting a very quick damper on Kaen’s mood. He might have even enjoyed bandying a few taunts and jabs back and forth with Rin if he was warmer. Unfortunately. He was not. He was freezing, and Rin knew it, which effectively gave the Empress the definitive win on this round. Ugh…. Kaen’d have to find Wycliff and Ranth and somehow rope them into a training session. If he had to deal with this, so did they damnit! Looking slightly to his left, however, Kaen noticed Wycliff standing right there. Oh yeah. He was there. He’d have to look for a chance to get Wycliff to join in the group suffering at the Empress’s hands. Only fair afterall, right? He did, to a minor extent, kind of hope that Rin would redirect her focus at one of the unpunished parties on her own, buuuut…. Well. The Empress was fickle, and unpredictable. It was one of the things Kaen liked about her. One of the things that made her a lot of fun to be around. Even if it was dangerous. That unpredictability meant he couldn’t be sure if she hadn’t already harped all the blame for the incident onto him. Seeing how he was under her command, he probably should have voiced at least some objection? Right? …. Damnit, no, not right, “Get Help” was an awesome plan, and Kaen was only regretting it because it had led to him doing a mission in such a freezing cold place along the fact that he hadn’t brought so much as a winter coat to the mission. He really hoped there’d be something to fight soon so he could release his Zanpakuto and start warming this damned place up! …Why were they here again? Oh right! Some Shinigami had gone missing in the area, and they were looking for the cause.

It’s entirely possible they got frozen into ice cubes with weather like this…. Kaen mentally lamented, doing his best to pay attention to the Empress’s words as he heard her speak up.

”Stay warm my dear. Fox is quite warm.” Kaen stared at the proffered scarf a moment. Almost as if hesitating. Although to be honest, it was probably less hesitation, and more that he was willing his frozen joints to move, before, a jerky motion of the arm accepted the attire from Rin and threw it around his neck. Well, at least orange suited Kaen reasonably. And it was really, really warm. It didn’t really do anything about his exposed arms besides that now he had something soft, warm and fluffy touching them while he hugged his body again. Nor do a ton about the fact that his pants and gi were not well suited for the cold. But it definitely helped, Kaen’s movements growing significantly more limber as his body temperature rose slightly against the cold, his arms slightly more mobile than before. ”Th-th-thank you, F-F-F-Fukutaichou…” He stuttered out behind chattering teeth, appreciatively. Then Rin was back to being her regal, elegant and stern self. He probably couldn’t expect another favor like that for at least a little while. Still, it did bring a brief smile to Kaen’s frozen lips. What had he just been thinking? About how unpredictable the Empress could be? This almost seemed to be an answer to that, confirming it. Kaen would have to take very good care of this scarf, allowing himself to risk the cold a little bit more as he lifted an arm to shield the scarf slightly against the wind and the snow that blew at his face.

Now, that just left the establishment itself. And the rest of the team. Wycliff, Kaen was already acquainted with. He’d been the one to think up “Get Help” during the attack awhile back, afterall. He seemed to be able to manipulate a white powdery substance, similarly to how Kaen could manipulate his own pyrokinetic abilities. He was certainly creative and could think of outside the box solutions. Even if those outside the box solutions got Kaen doing two months worth of the Empress’s paperwork as an apology, along with sending her copious amounts of sushi. Aevus, less so. They’d both served the Gotei 13 as Vice Captains, but although Kaen had grown acquainted with a great many Vice Captains of Soul Society and had been an operational Vice Captain for a very long time himself, Aevus was one of the few Kaen had never had the pleasure of meeting. He knew very little about him. His techniques, his abilities, strengths or weaknesses. Only that he was ranked among the very strongest Vice Captains in the Seireitei. Which was good to know, to be sure. And then, Kaen’s gaze travelled to the weather-worn establishment. Looked cozy enough. Pretty standard for a winter base, from what Kaen understood about winter bases. They’d have to go and check the inside first though, he supposed. So along with the rest of the group, he entered the base.

SonnuvaBITCH it was still cold in here! Not nearly as bad as outside, but it seemed someone desperately needed to turn on the heat, damnit! Kaen scanned around the room. Come on, they had to have something! Hot drinks, warm beds, back-up coa—Oh! There it was! Kaen noticed a room that looked like it hosted beds! The Third Seat practically vanished from the group, such was the speed he disappeared into the Sleeping Quarters. There were a number of beds with warm looking sheets. Kaen looked at them longingly, his body, though warmed by the Empress’s scarf, still dreadfully chilled. There was a dresser next to each bed, as established in the prior post Did that mean….. Kaen yanked out the drawers of the nearest dresser. YES! There were coats in here. With little concern for the original owner of the garment, Kaen yanked out a thick and warm winter parka, and quickly threw it on. It was a little big for the Shinigami, but screw it, he didn’t care! …. Nor did he particularly consider how strange the sight would have been for an ordinary Human, who could not see spirits, to see a parka floating in midair. Oops. Yeah, probably a little weird there, huh? Kaen went to other dressers, procuring two more parkas, one slightly larger and one slightly smaller than the one he was wearing and quickly threw those on too. Aaahhh….. Okay. Now he was warm. Or at least warming up. Kaen moved around the room, his motions slightly awkward and stilted, on account of wearing THREE winter coats, plus a scarf. But hey. At least he could focus now, and put his mind to work, right?

So, which room should he check out then? Poking his head out the door, three options immediately jumped out to Kaen. He could, of course, go and assist his Vice Captain in her own investigation. Technically, as Rin’s adjutant in this scenario, he’d probably be expected to tag along with her anyways unless ordered not to. His freezing needs taken care of, it would probably be most appropriate to rejoin the Empress. However, there was a flip side. Squad 7 was the Internal Affairs division. A squad that specialized in investigation. That it also happened to be the strongest division in Soul Society was a lucky coincidence, born, likely out of the need for the officers to be adept at subduing and defeating other Shinigami. If Rin was already investigating area, it could be overkill for Kaen to join in too.

There was the room he was already in too. Wycliff had headed off to the kitchen, and while Kaen could certainly have gone to assist him, he figured he’d at least let Wycliff get a head start on things. That left the bathroom, and this room. In Kaen’s experience, bathrooms were really only useful for disposing of things, in cases of investigations. Shoving evidence down the sink or drain or whatever. But in this arctic wasteland that was hardly necessary. Bodies couldn’t be disposed of in there, but they could easily be taken out and buried in the snow. Walk out thirty feet in any direction and bury them, in weather like this, they’d be impossible to distinguish from a hunk of ice, buried in the snow, within ten minutes. The same could be done for any tools used in the work. Poison? Chuck the vial in the snow. Done. This base likely didn’t have proper plumbing and so probably instead had some kind of septic tank or another. Whoever was working with it, would have to have figured it out. Unless it was a Hollow anyways. But…. If it was a Hollow, they normally weren’t so concerned with covering up their mess. They wouldn’t care. There’d be signs of a scuffle in some way, shape or form. And in any case, if it was a Hollow, it only lessened the likelihood of finding anything as they’d simply have eaten their victims and left. At the end of the day, unless the perpetrator had blown up the washroom, or left a weapon or note in there or something, the odds of finding anything in there were painfully slim.

It had to be kept in mind, that Shinigami had also gone missing on this assignment. So whatever was present was capable of subduing them. Now, granted, there were plenty of ways to do that. Kaen knew that firsthand. A sufficiently strong being could defeat a Shinigami just by hitting them with their bare hands. But Kaen had trained Squad 7 well, and he knew what they were capable of. Defeating a Squad 7 field agent was not something just anything could do. The average Hollow would stand no chance. As far as culprits, it could be a higher level Hollow, it could be a Quincy, it could be an Arrancar, a trained Fullbringer or a Bount. Those were the likely suspect. Rogue Shinigami and Hell races were possible, but unlikely. Of these groups…. None would really have anything to dispose of. A Quincy’s arrows were of reiatsu and would dissipate. No real need for clean-up with the right ability, and certainly no reason to have to hide evidence of the crime. Similar cases existed for Fullbringers and Bount. Most spiritually inclined races could make do with their own abilities. Which meant there’d be no need to dispose of anything—the primary use of the bathroom in a crime. Anything that DID need to be disposed of, could simply be buried in the snow outside.

And most importantly, if Kaen went to check the bathroom now, he’d risk taking his Vice Captain’s precious scarf in there, and that simply wouldn’t do!

Which really meant the bathroom wasn’t a good option to check out. That left the computer room, working with his Vice Captain, the kitchen, working with Wycliff, or the Sleeping Quarters. Well…. Seeing how nobody else was in the sleeping Quarters yet, the choice seemed all but made for Kaen, and he began his full investigation of the room. Carefully, professionally, and efficiently.

Before Kaen could properly begin his investigation though, he noticed that he wasn’t alone. Another member of the team had entered the room. Aevus, and his wolf companion who had made herself quite comfortable on one of the beds. ”Oh. Hey. Didn’t notice you there.” Kaen commented. Putting that Analysis 2 to good work, yo! ”Seeing as how we’re both in here, we can get a particularly thorough look in here, before we move on to the others I guess.” He noted. Already Aevus and the wolf were inspecting under the beds. A logical place to start. Kaen scanned around the room for further details that he could check out.

At a glance the room appeared perfectly ordinary. Kaen’s first step in any situation with analyzing a potential crime scene was to take in scene first, and work on the minute details later. Aside from the beds and dressers, Kaen made out that he was currently standing on a fairly standard bit of carpeting. Nothing special, the bare minimum to keep the workers from having to walk barefoot on freezing steel or stone floors. It wasn’t ratty or matted or anything like that, not even any interesting design. A fairly standard carpet, like one might find in an office building. Might want to peel this up… Kaen thought. Well. Something like that could come after a preliminary search of the room, if nothing was turned up. Kaen was sure he’d find some kind of clue here.

A member of Squad Seven, Kaen had received training in investigation and analysis. As far as things went, the Internal Affairs division was about as close to the FBI as Soul Society had, and so investigation was something Kaen was actually decent at. With a two in Analysis, he was able to scan the Sleeping Quarters over, taking an account of the surprisingly spacious room. The beds looked undisturbed. Neat and made. At least for the most part. Within reason at least. Oh well. Kaen glanced up at the ceiling, noting nothing but fluorescent bulbs, buzzing quietly above the room. The light switch had been on the wall behind him. Come to think of it, the lights seemed to have been on in this room. That was strange…. Well…. Going into investigation mode, Kaen slowly paced around the room, leaving the beds and the dressers to Aevus. Well, aside from one dresser, which had a nice little lamp, and notepad on it. The notepad was blank, but Kaen did manage to snag a pen from it!

Kaen wasn’t 100% certain what it was he should be looking for. Blood stains maybe? Signs of a struggle? Wet boot prints maybe…. Glancing at his own boots, Kaen noted he himself had already tracked some snow into the base. Oops. Hopefully that wouldn’t mess with the evidence. He noticed a ventiliation shaft running along the outside…. Or was it a central heating system? Kaen wasn’t a mechanic, so he couldn’t be entirely certain. It was a grate, over what looked to be some kind of hole in the wall, and from the look of it, it was supposed to be there, not just a quick patch job. Hrm….. If he failed to find anything else, Kaen would be sure to give that a thorough inspection as well. He also looked at the floor along the walls, fairly thoroughly. It wasn’t really possible to see from outside, but he wondered if there might be an access hatch or port, or anything like that, that might lead to a sub-level? Granted, it was pretty unlikely something like that would be in this particular room, but if nothing else, maybe he’d find a hidden latch for a crawl space. He couldn’t discount the possibility, at any rate, so he’d need to search very thoroughly.

Done with his preliminary assessment, Kaen now turned his attention to the rest of the room. The Third seat approached a wall, and walked along it, running his hand along the surface of the wall, as he slowly walked along the room. As he did, Kaen stretched out with his Energy Sensory. He ignored the familiar reiatsus of Wycliff, Rin and Aevus, as they conducted their own search of the area. Kaen’s energy sensory was not great. Actually it was average, at best. But he could still detect obvious anomalies, which he was searching for now. He didn’t expect to sense anything. But sometimes the obvious move was the one that was overlooked, because everyone assumed someone else had already tried it. Kaen was making sure to cover all of his bases. He even took the time to examine the door itself. It was a heavy door, with a small, thick-glassed window built in, not unlike one might expect to find on a ship, allowing someone to look out or into the Sleeping Quarters. Kaen checked the door—both sides of it, to see if there were any signs of tampering or forced entry. He definitely found the door could be locked from the inside. So his next step was to examine the latch. The door had been ajar when he’d entered. That puzzled Kaen slightly. Was it a clue? Was whoever had entered or left the room last, in such a hurry they forgot to throw the door closed behind them? Or was it just laziness? Kaen hoped, after his exhaustive search of the top, bottom and walls of the room, that something might have come up.

Well, come to think of it, there was one last place to check. The vent.

Kaen went back to the air vent, and pressed a hand to it lightly, and quickly withdrew it. Testing for heat. Hey, Kaen was freezing cold a moment ago, but he wasn’t immune to high temperatures, he just preferred them. Nothing. If this was a central heating system, it was turned off. Kaen reached over, using his hands to worry at the screws bolting the heavy grate to the wall. A normal human would have struggled to turn them, as they seemed bolted well. For Kaen, it was actually harder not to snap them off in the wall, than it was to turn them, and he had the grate off in no time at all. He pulled it from the wall and checked into the darkness of the vent behind it. Too small for him to crawl through. Far too small. Kaen doubted he could even get his head inside, let alone his shoulders. Hmmm…

”Hey! How is your search going?” He asked Aevus, as he concluded his own examination of the room, the chatter and stutter in his voice having firmly dissipated, thanks to Rin’s assistance with the scarf, and the three parkas, generously “donated” to Kaen’s use by the previous tenants of the base. Kaen waited a moment or two to see if there were any other answers, supplying clues found, before mentioning his own findings—whatever the GM dictated that those happened to be. Kaen poked his head out the door, noting Rin in the computer lab and Wycliff in the kitchen. Oooo! Maybe there were hot drinks in there! ”Wycliff, is there any tea or coffee in there?” He asked, before pulling his head back into the room, and considering his options with Aevus. ”I suppose there is one more room we need to check.” He noted. ”I doubt we’ll find anything extremely vital in there, but for thoroughness’s sake it’s not probably the worst idea. We might have some luck outside too if I can melt the snow.” He added.

[Ranth]

As Rin made her way through the computer room, the first thing that would be obvious to even the most casual observer was that all of the computers were turned on. This filled the room with bluish white light as each screen possessed exactly the same display- a fluffy white sheep in a pristine meadow under a clear blue sky. When Rin approached one of the computers and closed out of the window, she would realise that this was a screensaver and once any key was pressed or the mouse was moved, the screen would change to a plain blue background with a white bar in the center, below which the words 'input: password' were displayed in red text.

There was no obvious indication as to what the password might be- no post-it notes with random letters or anything else that many people were known to do. Rin would be free to guess at the password as many times as she liked, although after 5 incorrect guesses she would be locked out for 30 seconds and for every incorrect guess within 5 minutes of the previous one would double that time- so there would be a hard limit on how wild she could get with her guesses if she decided to go down that route. But perhaps one of the other members of the team would find the password in one of the other rooms... or perhaps she'd already seen the answer and just didn't know it yet.

---

Wycliff's investigation of the kitchen wouldn't bring him across anything as obvious as a computer with a password prompt, but what he would find was that the kitchen seemed to have been left in such a state that one could reasonably expect someone to just walk in from one of the other rooms to return to their meal at any moment. Yet, naturally, this did not happen. The microwave was relatively clean as far as microwaves went- nothing else of interest to see there. The fridge on the other hand held something a little more unusual, for it was empty save for a plastic container with a bio hazard sticker slapped on top and a padlock threaded through the front to prevent the lid from being opened. It was an odd thing to find in a fridge and even stranger for it to be in the kitchen fridge of all places. Just what was this place used for?

The rest of his search wouldn't turn up much at first, but in one of the cupboards he'd find a set of two keys. Neither of them fit the padlock in the fridge, but they had to have some use, right?

---

Kaen and Aevus's joint search of the bedrooms didn't turn up any signs of where the original occupants had gone, but they wouldn't come up completely empty handed. Under one of the beds, Kaen would find an unassuming leather book which upon opening he would find to be something akin to a journal. Unfortunately, the owner of the book -Gerard- hadn't used this to thoroughly document his day to day activities, but rather a place for him to vent about various things that annoyed him.

June XX, Today it was cold. I hate the cold and where has the rum gone?

June XY, I don't know why Stephen insists on having password on the computers all the way out here. Who are we trying to hide from? The penguins?

July YY, I got chewed out by Stephen again for not having a password on my workstation. Well if he wants a 'password', then a 'password' is what he'll get!

July XZ, Eric hid my magazines from me last night, so I'm going to hide his key somewhere he'll never find them. I have other magazines, but he's only got one sample!

July ZZ, Eric hasn't come back from the site yet, so Stephen and I are going to go and check in on him. Maybe I shouldn't have hidden his key after all. If this was a corny sci-fi movie then this will be the last entry I ever write and some stranger is reading this... fuck off random stranger, didn't anyone ever teach you to mind your own business!

It was an interesting read to be sure, but could any of it be of use to Kaen and the others?

---

As for Aevus, when he checked the dressers beside each bed he would find a stark yellow hazmat suit hanging in each and every one of them. Six beds, six hazmat suits- along with an assortment of other articles of clothing. However, on the other side of the room, the dressers contained two hazmat suits. This would seem to suggest that each person was originally equipped with two suits and the fact that three of them were missing would seem to suggest that they were currently in use. But where... and for what purpose?

SPOILER: Click to show

{OOC:} Feel free to adjust your posting order after each one of my posts, but make sure you decide on a final order so we don't have a repeat of the bedroom search I'm experimenting with some more puzzle based stuff at the moment, so don't worry too much if your posts aren't super long for this section!

[Deleted]

[[ooc: i know people irl that do this]]

Technology was so stupid.

Not only was it not working the way she wanted it to, but there were sheep as far as the eye could see. It reminded her of something but she scoffed at the memory, promptly shaking it off and shifting her focus elsewhere. She touched the mouse and would be met with a garish message. One where the colors were ugly and offending. The Empress hissed at the sight of it. When she finally got over her disdain for graphic design she would read the text.

input: password

Did it require a password? Or was it simply telling her to put in ‘password’? Rin studied the screen for a while. Where were those stupid Squad 12 geeks when she needed them? She had very little experience with computers and only knew basic things. The downfall of coming from the Edo period and staying in it. Sigh. What was an Empress to do? Become a nerd? Heavens no~! Rin was contemplating for about a solid minute until the sheep in the disgustingly “pristine” meadow showed up and she winced, moving the mouse again in an attempt to get rid of it.

Well, since the thing was saying password, why not just try password? It was reasonable, no? Slowly, Rin would type out the word password and hit enter. She was careful in entering it, fearful that she would mess it up. She knew that if she did, she was going to break this keyboard and blame it on Wycliff. Kaen suffering her wrath was already old and she needed someone new to deal with her temper. Besides, she meant her truce. No way she could violate that, right? The Empress would spare her third seat and whilst waiting for her password to go through, she moved the mouse on the computer next to her… You know.. to get rid of the sheep. The sheep that clearly did not belong here whatsoever.

"Rin, no one is that stupid."

"My dear, if only you knew..."

[☾ Aevus | Umbra ☽]

This was quite the odd predicament for the Shinigami. Looking around in a bedroom that wasn’t his own. It was funny really. Aevus was generally lazy when it came to searching for things in his own room. When it came down to it, everything was typically thrown and scattered about at random. Unopened letters, books and the like littered his desk in piles. As for his bed, it resembled nothing like the neat and pristine one before him. For one, this bed was actually made. The sheets were pressed nicely against the mattress and there barely if any wrinkles at all to be seen.

Aevus himself had a terrible habit of moving around in his sleep and it was not uncommon for him to leave his bed the way he left it. Which frankly speaking was typically a mess. It also wasn't uncommon for his Zanpakuto Spirit to find him sleeping on the floor because more often than not he'd roll off the bed. Much to the dismay of Aevus who’d wake up with a painful crick in his neck the next day. Yet no matter how much of a mess his room was. He always looked forward to crashing on that bed at the end of a long hunt. Even now as his tired blue eyes scanned that room, he thought blissfully of sleep.

But there were more pressing matters at the moment than getting shut eye. One of his subordinates was still missing in this frigid place.

”Oh. Hey. Didn’t notice you there. Seeing as how we’re both in here, we can get a particularly thorough look in here, before we move on to the others I guess.”

Aevus would make a passing glance towards the other Shinigami before giving him a silent nod. Even with that odd getup, he strangely enough recognized the former lieutenant’s face. Seeing how the Onmitsukido kept files on just about everyone in Soul Society. Central 46 made sure that his squad kept tabs on Captains and Lieutenants, especially in those rare cases where they need to be 'removed’. Now that he thought about it. Everyone who was sent on this mission was a lieutenant at some point or another. Just what were they getting into? That they needed that many high ranked Shinigami in one place? It was strange but it had Aevus curious.

After a more thorough investigation of the dressers, Aevus would find that each one possessed a yellow hazmat suit. “Strange...” There seemed to be some missing. “Aevus?” Lumina perked her head up from the bed. The Shinigami seemed to be lost in thought. The suits reminded him strangely of the outfits some members of squad 12 would wear at times. Usually while they were investigating or doing their so called experiments. He never looked much into it, but he guessed they most likely protected you from some type of poison, or something else airborne. There were three missing suits and three missing Shinigami. It wasn’t hard to put two and two together.

”Hey! How is your search going?”

Aevus would sigh to himself before glancing towards Kaen. “I believe the missing Shinigami each took a pair of these.” He would hold out the suit for the man to see. “Seeing how there are three missing... I’m not sure why they’d take them though. Unless they knew something we-” Aevus stopped himself at those words. Averting Kaen's gaze for a moment. It seemed he was already jumping to conclusions about their fate. “-Unless they know something we don’t.” The Shinigami corrected. “How about you? Did you find anything interesting?”

[Kaen Youji]

Kaen didn't get any immediate answers from any of the group, except for Aevus, whom he looked over at, as Aevus responded. "Well that's.... weird. But continue. I think any theories are good at this point." He noted. "I don't see any signs of a struggle in here. No blood, no scuff marks. Nothing. So whoever was originally here either didn't die here, or they died without a fight." He concluded. "Or whatever killed them is REALLY good at cleanup." He added as a third option. Unless they knew something the Shinigami didn't, huh? "Probably did." Kaen agreed, thumbing through the journal he found. "As for this... Well." He walked to the door, and stuck his head out, facing towards the computer lab. "Vice Captain. I think the password to one of those computers is "password"." He commented. "Or Password with a capital, but try both." He suggested, before pulling his head back into the room to face Aevus. "So... those suits.... Aren't those like.... suits that you wear to protect yourself from chemicals or something?" Kaen may have had an encyclopedic knowledge of Human World manga, anime, martial arts, weapons and various pop cultural references and memes, but he didn't know stuff like this especially well. ”This journal entry notes that some of the workers never returned from “the site”…. Wonder what they’re referring to. Do you think you could see if there’s any clues about that in here? Any maps or what not? Also, looks like the writer of this journal hid someone’s key. Keep an eye out for that.”

"If you want to keep looking around the bedroom, that's fair." He added. "I'll check in with some of the others." Kaen reached over and scratched Lumina behind the ears (hopefully not getting bitten in the process!) and then exited the room, and went first to check on Wycliff in the kitchens. ”I’m just gathering intel to spread around.” He commented. ”I found a journal from one of the workers here and Aevus has found some weird anti-chemical suits.” He noted. ”He seems to believe that our subordinates that came here probably grabbed them for something. You seen anything in here that might support that?” He asked. Kaen would wait for awhile, and look around the kitchen while he was there. He popped the stove and microwave open and took a glance inside, but understood this was Wycliff’s area to search. ”Just a heads up, but can you keep your eyes open for anywhere someone might hide a key as a prank?” He suggested. Then he’d go to report to his superior officer, the Empress.

Kaen thanked Wycliff and left the kitchen, to head into the computer room. ”Empress.” He folded a hand across his chest and over his heart (somewhat awkwardly given the number of coats he was wearing restricted his arm movement slightly) and bowed. ”Have you found anything since you began your search? May I assist in any way?” There was still the washroom to check, of course, but even if nobody else went to check that room, Kaen wanted to make sure he didn’t go into such a place with the Empress’s scarf! That was no place for such an important item! ”I found this while searching the sleeping quarters.” He placed the journal down near Rin so the Empress could read through it if she saw fit. Since it did concern the computer lab, afterall. ”Looks like one of the workers disappeared at the site, and some others went to look for them. Three of them specifically—huh.” It just clicked in Kaen’s mind the possibility that the hazmat suits might not have been taken by Shinigami afterall, but by the three workers implied in the journal entry. ”…You haven’t happened to have found a key in here, would you have?” He inquired.

[Wycliff]

Wycliff looked at the odd keys he found in a cupboard, a strange thing to see here given that it looked like this is where they kept the plates. Had someone dropped them here? No it was so out of the way it must have been someone placing them here on purpose. The only question was why place keys here? As a reminder? As a prank? As a clue? They were all options that could be true, however it wasn't his place to judge, yet keys could be useful so Wycliff took them and pocketed them next to his poprocks.

The room wasn't that bad, well say for the strange fact that the food was still slightly warm. That's what Wycliff thought until he opened up the refrigerator and saw inside. You see, when one opens a refrigerator you would expect food being in there, ya know some milk, cheese, fruit, possible leftovers from the night before, possibly a lunchbox given it's a work refrigerator, maybe bread depending on the person if they liked to keep the bread fresh. However what he didn't expect to see inside was a god damn jar with a bio hazard sticker on it and a padlock. “OH FUCK NO”

“I've seen too many god damn monster movies to be ok with this shit.” Wycliff immediately left the kitchen and walked into the computer room. “Find whatever ya can on that computer and lets get the hell outa here.” He said to Rin in a rushed tone that held fear and worry. “Kaen, can ya contact squad twelve and tell them to send a unit out here to check out whatever these folks locked up in a biohazard container in the fridge, after that we gotta burn this place down.” He knew that his words would be strange, but in all honestly he couldn't count how many times he had seen this exact scenario play out in a movie which resulted in the death of everyone involved.

Wycliff would step away from the computer room for a moment to go look for Aevus  who he hadn't heard from since they had entered into the building. In the bedroom he would see that there were hazmat suits that sight allowed him to ignore Aevus , he let out a sigh and walked over grabbing them dragging the suits to the computer room. “We're putting these on.” While Wycliff was a third seat and he knew better than to order Rin around he really, really didn't want to deal with whatever caused everyone to rush out of this place. “Listen, something strange is going on here and I ain't about to reenact the god damn thing from 1982. People here had these suits for a reason, and now they ain't here, so I'm guessen that whatever they were dealing with was chemical or toxic, especially given that container in the fridge. “

[Ranth]

Upon entering the password: password, the computer would seem to freeze for a moment as though pondering what its next move should be and then the login interface was replaced by a new screen. The login had been successful! It was at this moment that Kaen poked his head in to tell the Empress what she already knew, but maybe she'd be too engrossed in what was on the screen to mock him or gloat. Maybe. As for what she was seeing, it would take her a moment but eventually she would realise that it was a full screen aerial photograph of a mostly white landscape shown from an aerial view and the date the photo was taken... 2 days earlier.

Towards the bottom of the map a vaguely familiar structure stood out against the unrelenting whiteness. It was the outpost that they were currently investigating. From this part of the photo, a dotted red line had been super imposed over the photo and led West, then North as it wound through snowy valleys and narrow land bridges made from solid ice. According to the scale on the side of the map, this line danced a merry jig that measured close to 28km before coming to an end in the top left portion of the map where a red circle seemed to indicate... something? There were no annotations to describe anything displayed other than the scale of distance. That... and the fact that there was a second structure several hundred metres North-West of the Outpost. From above it just looked like a big shed, but who knew what it might contain or if Rin would even notice it as the dotted red line drew the eye. As for what was within the circle, it just looked like flat ground covered in snow.

As for the mystery of the missing key that Kaen and Wycliff were discussing, there was only one room left to explore. The Bathroom. If anyone was brave enough to enter, they would find that the interior wasn't in terrible shape by any means. It smelled of industrial strength artificial lavender thanks to the dispenser that hung inside the rim of the toiler. A toilet that, upon closer inspection, seemed to be blocked as the water level was significantly higher than it otherwise should have been.

Aevus would emerge from the bedroom just in time to catch Wycliff's frantic breakdown full of references that there was every chance that none of the Shinigami would be familiar with. However, if they chose to put on the suits then they would be free to do so... but as Kaen had noted, there had been three people mentioned in the journal and there were three suits. Was it possible that there was no correlation between the suits and the missing Shinigami at all? They were, after all, not wearing gigai's and therefore not subject to many of the same limitations and threats that a regular human would be.

[Deleted]

"Wow. You weren't kidding."

Naturally, her password worked. What moron decided on this being her password? Rin flipped her hair and smiled triumphantly as she was let through the login screen. She immediately set to clicking and exploring what was there. She could hear Kaen’s voice and his advice and she looked to him with a knowing smile. “Naturally, your Empress has already found her way through this, ne~” she called out to Kaen with glee. Her eyes were fixated on the screen, regardless. This place was abandoned recently. She had to find out why.

From the looks of it was a picture. A photograph seemingly taken from up above. Rin studied it intently. From the time stamp, it seemed… It was only taken two days ago? How peculiar. Her eyes were drawn to the red line over the photo and followed the trail that led through the snowy area. When she reached the end point, there wa—“I've seen too many god damn monster movies to be ok with this shit.” ..was something. It was a trail? No it was map. It… Ugh. Would this moron shut up? She’s trying to concentrate? This was important. His blubbering and whining was so bloody intrusive that she couldn’t handle it.

“Find whatever ya can on that computer and lets get the hel—”

Rin didn’t even hesitate. The moment the blondie opened his mouth again and continued his act of crying wolf, Rin immediately turned to him. She spun quick and one palm slammed across his cheek hard. Angrily, the Empress pointed to a chair sternly. “Shut up. Sit down. We haven’t died yet. Let me figure out what’s going on here. Thank you..” Her voice was steely and dripped with rage. Orange irises stared down the blonde until he calmed down. “I know you’re worried but you need to compose yourself. We can get out of here as soon as I can get this down.” She’d spend another couple extra minutes at the computer looking around for anything extra. She wanted to make sure she covered everything and didn’t miss any extra files and documents on there.

Still, Wycliff’s words rung throughout her mind. The Empress huffed, annoyed and when she looked to him again she saw he was passing her a hazmat suit. With two fingers, she held on to it, inspecting it clearly disgusted at the notion. He found a container in the fridge? If it was in the fridge that meant it was safely contained no? Already, she was hating the start of this. If there was a legitimate threat, she wouldn’t have much time. Seeing a printer in the corner of the room that was fully functional she had a brilliant idea~! Rin would print four copies of this photograph and anything else of importance. One for each person.

The Empress slung the suit over her forearm and walked through the compound passing a print out of the map she’d found. She spoke out loud addressing everyone and informing them of her findings. “This is a map I found on the computer. Everyone was here two days ago. I suspect they went off to the compound at the end of the red trail. For what, I’m not entirely sure.” As she made her way to Aevus and passed him off a copy of the map, she’d notice a certain beautiful canine and all senses were lost for Rin’s true weakness was a four legged friend. Immediately the mighty Empress dropped to her knees at the sight of the wolf and fingers carefully reached out to her, running through soft white fur before scratching behind her ears and then her head. “Hello~” Screw a mission right?

[☾ Aevus | Umbra ☽]

“Yeah...you’re right, I didn’t see any signs of a struggle either.” Aevus sighed. Yet he knew from experience that finding nothing didn’t mean anything. It could have a meant a number of things. But he knew for a fact that sitting around and looking for clues wasn’t gonna help find his missing squad member. Lumina gave Aevus an inquisitive look. “That one is rather thorough wouldn’t you agree Aevus?” Aevus shook his head “Yeah well, i’m not surprised seeing how he’s from squad Seven and all. How about you, enjoying that bed?” He’d give his spirit a small grin. Which Lumina took one look at and hopped off the bed. “I didn’t smell anyone from our squad in this room Aevus. Nor did I sense any lingering Reiatsu.” Aevus knew it, they were just wasting their time. “Well try again, see if you can sense anything that can give us a lead.” Lumina nodded begrudgingly. It didn’t take long for Kaen to return and begin to prod the two with questions of his own.

"So... those suits.... Aren't those like.... suits that you wear to protect yourself from chemicals or something?"

Lumina was right... this guy is pretty thorough. Aevus would sigh internally. “That’d be my best guess. I’m not so sure myself.” And he really wasn’t. He was definitely no expert on humans and their customs but he knew some things. Luke may have looked up to him for guidance in how to dance with a blade. Yet Aevus learned a lot from that strange Bount as well. A lot, especially about the human world. Which only seemed to spike his curiosity more and more. Maybe those suites were those body sized condoms? He remembered him once bringing them up when silencing one of his dolls.

Nah that’d be stupid...

Kaen continued to talk about a Human’s Journal, maps and some key which only seemed to open up more questions. “I’ll be sure to keep a look out.” What came next seemed to startle Lumina. “What are you-" She winced as Kaen’s hand came to rest behind her ear. And as he began to scratch she immediately backed away confused. “Ahhh!” Silver eyes widened and she nearly jumped backwards at the man’s action. Bumping into the leg of a nearby bed in the process. Clearly flustered, her cheeks would have been pink with a blush if it wasn’t for her white furs. Aevus couldn’t help but chuckle as his panicked Spirit rose back to her four paws. A snarl began to release from her throat. “I am not a d-” Before she could properly defend herself Kaen had already left leaving her all the more annoyed.

“I think he was just being nice.”

“If so, why didn’t he pet you?” She’d nearly growl turning to Aevus in a huff. Wolven ears perked as a blonde Shinigami entered into the room in a quickened pace. Taking the Hazmat suites and leaving without even uttering a word. Any other would have seen that as rude. But frankly Aevus didn’t really care. “It seems the blonde one found something.” Aevus wasn’t gonna even bother putting a name to the man’s face. Even though he knew, he knew it. Keeping track of the Gotei Shinigami wasn’t his job... well not completely anyway. “Lets go see for ourselves shall we?” To be honest Aevus was a bit curious with what the others were up too.

As he entered the computer room he managed to catch the tail end of the conversation. Whatever was up, the blonde Shinigami seemed pretty worked up over it and the girl seemed to quickly snap right back. Aevus would lean against the door entrance with his arms crossed, nearly smirking from the exchange. His tired blue eyes would meet the girl’s for a second. Causing his eyes to light up with surprise. She had a particular pair... Like two blazing embers. Yet his first impression of the lieutenant went out the window rather swiftly as she dropped to her knees.

“Hello~”

Not again... Lumina’s silver eyes widened like two full moons as she was met face to face with the Shinigami. She was used to children and the like trying to pet her. but this? And two in the same day. What were the odds? She was clearly not prepared. Be nice Lumina. Her ears flattened as she gazed into those burning eyes. Her anger having previously subsided, she could only say one thing. “Hello...” She muttered back rather sheepishly.

Her left hind leg began to pound against the ground and her tail began to thrash back and forth as she felt the girl scratch just behind her ear. The truth was... she had never let someone actually pet her for more than a second. So she didn’t realize how it felt. She couldn’t lie, it was nice. But it was also so very... humiliating. Aevus would cough into his hand trying to get the lieutenant’s attention. Even so it managed to perk Lumina’s ears first. She would jerk her head away from Rin. “Heh, if I remember correctly we have a mission right? I’m sure Lumina will let you pet her all you want after it’s done.” He'd manage with a feigned grin. Lumina nearly glared silver daggers into him as he spoke.

[Kaen Youji]

Ah, damn. It seemed that Rin was several steps ahead of Kaen, but he smiled at her as he entered. "Oh! As expected of an Empress!" He replied, praising Rin. He stepped behind Rin to examine the screen, eyes flickering across it. Taking in everything and committing it to memory. "So.... twenty eight kilometers North-East? That's nothing. I could make that in under twenty minutes, at an easy pace." Kaen noted. "Dig site maybe?" And then Wycliff started freaking out, prompting Rin to slap him. Kaen almost sniggered at that, but barely resisted the urge. He did grin at it though. "Yare yare daze. Wycliff, for someone who's seen so many monster movies, you seem to be terrifyingly genre-blind. You know that the guy who starts freaking out, almost never makes it to the end of the movie, right?" He replied. "Heck, he's usually the first or second guy to die." He countered, his voice sounding unusually chipper at preordaining a comrade's death. Well. Kaen didn't think anyone was going to die. "Seriously. Cool it. Or have you forgotten who you're with?" He added, glancing between Rin and himself. "Soul Society sent Squad 7 to this case. Nobody here is going to die with us around." He declared.

And then followed after Rin as she went to give her handouts and fawn over Lumina. Kaen grinned as he watched Rin attempt to spoil the puppy. Lumina had sprang back when Kaen had scratched her behind the ears, but it seemed she was making an effort. "Vice Captain, you're very good with dogs." He said admirably. Then Kaen looked to the only room left to check. "I'll be right back." He noted, walking to the washroom and poking his head inside. He wasn't expecting much, to be honest. No severed limbs, heads or anything else trying to be disposed of right? He walked through, briefly, noting the higher water level, before walking back out. "Something might be blocking the plumbing in there." Kaen noted to the group. "However, since the Empress lent me her scarf, I don't want to risk getting it wet." He added. "I could redecorate in there, with permission if we consider it of vital importance that it get checked out before we leave here though." Redecorate with his fist that is. Whoever may have stayed there before, a punch from Kaen would likely remove an industrial bathroom wall faster and more effectively than a jackhammer, and expose whatever might have been blocking the plumbing in there. Buuuuut that would technically be tampering with the crime scene, so. So he'd at least need his Vice Captain's approval.

It seemed Aevus and Rin were getting along pretty well, which was encouraging after the bit with Wycliff. "So.... What's our next plan of action?" Kaen asked. "I'm kind of curious about that place on the map, but maybe we've missed something here? I'm still wondering about the key that was mentioned in the journal.... Though I'd wager I can remove any door or lock that it's to." Afterall. There were very few locked doors for an operation of this kind that were made with Kaen Youji in mind, when it came to keeping people out. Kaen "conveniently" missed Lumina's reaction to Aevus offering to let Rin pet Lumina. "Oh, you two will get along well."

[Wycliff]

By the time he was handed the map of where they were going Wycliff had already put on the hazmat suit and was out the door, there was one last place that no one had looked in yet, that large shed. Honestly he really didn't want to go in there, but he knew that he should at least look and see if there was anything worth while inside. At the very least as he walked towards it the hazmat suit allowed some protection from the wind and snow. What don't like the cold? You should. Chukudo chuckled in the back of his mind as he walked into the shed and opened it up. At just first glance Wycliff could say that he was ok with what he found inside of the shed.

Inside he saw a few vehicles, the one that he was drawn to was a bright red snowmobile. Stepping inside he reached into his pocket and pulled out his eyes finding that they were vehicle keys. “Nice, so what else is in here....” Looking around he saw what seemed to be a dog sled with everything for it to be usable say for an actual sled dog team. He couldn't blame them not having the dogs out here, but that did raise the question where the hell were the dogs? Did they have two sleds for dogs? Looking at the sack on the sled he found something that he wished he had found before. Snow jackets, not just one but several include one that was red “Oh sweet fucking soul king.” Without giving a second thought Wycliff threw one on over his hazmat suit. Fuck it if it was going to be cold he would be wearing layers of clothing.

Besides the dog sled and the snowmobile there was what looked like a heavy duty truck with a snow pusher in the front of it. Well.... he knew what the hell he was driving out of this place and it wasn't that ugly ass truck. He could at least carry one other person on the snowmobile, but he wasn't sure if the others actually knew how to drive these things. Heck Wycliff only knew because of how often he visited the human world and went out to the beaches that often and rode tons of jet skis so the concept was the same. For the others, he wasn't too sure how they would handle what was essentially a motorcycle on the snow or a massive truck

With that in mind Wycliff started up the snowmobile letting it warm up a bit knowing that there was a chance that the engine would stall on him. Looking down he saw that he had a full tank and no leaks anywhere on the bike. After a few minutes he would drive it to the font of the building he was just in before. With the engine still on he screamed at the others. “Come on, there's another vehicle in the shed and coats. Let's go~ I don't want to freeze my ass off. So let's finish this then go for drinks in Hawaii. I know a guy who owes me a favor.” Honestly Wycliff was ready to get out of the cold and enjoy some warm weather, however little would he know that the cold would be more welcoming to him than heat soon.