Log Title: Strung Up
Summary: Someone sends a message to the owner of the Panama Rose
IC Date: Wed Mar 13 19:05, 2381
OOC Date: Wed Mar 13 19:05, 2019
Related Logs: None
violetgalennaokocarnagetanaka

 

 

Violet pushed up the glasses she had pulled down over her eyes, settling the stack back into its protective nutrient environment. Hopefully, she would not need to touch it again before the next match. Damned fool should have known better than to leave his neck exposed. Ah well. She slid the box back into its slot, before she pulled the glasses off completely, the movement fanning the brilliantly yellow hair she'd chosen for the night, as she headed towards the stasis pods.

* * *

Galen arrives from the fighter's locker room, fresh out of the shower after his training match. It wasn't supposed to lead to sleeve damage, but Galen was distracted and left his opponent an opening he couldn't resist. Wearing only black pants that wrap tight at the ankle, he's currently using the corner of his towel to clean water out of his ear as he pad barefoot through sleeve storage area. "Sorry about that." He comments with a shit eating grin to Violet as he sees her stash the recently mended sleeve, the expression indicating he isn't the least bit apologetic.

* * *

Violet did not glance up, as Galen made his way over, setting the pods to do their routine maintenance before she finally looked towards the fighter, "It happens. As you're both still working, I haven't anything to complain about. You need a check-up, or are you going to power through?"

* * *

There's not many people left in the Panama Rose. A cleaner or two. A security guard, though Carnage likes to rely on technical security rather than people power. People can be bribed.

Said security guard actually just walked by the sleeve storage area, IDed them both with his ONI, then kept walking. So the fact that there's a sudden, loud crash from the arena is highly unusual. Then a set of proximity alarms start to blare.

* * *

"I'm fine, I took my dose." His pupils are as wide as saucers, Galen having taken the drug that helps with accidental frag when decanting back into his birth sleeve. Part of his popularity comes from the fact that he does in fact fight in the over six foot blonde frame he was born into, but sometimes a bout requires he pick a different form for the sake of sensationalism. "Keeps you working ri…" The crash draws a quick twist of Galen's head towards the arena, that smile quickly obliterated from the sound of the alarms.

* * *

Violet looked Galen over with a practiced eye. A doctor's eye, rather than the rather lecherous glances he tended to receive when he was in his birth sleeve. "Of course you are." There was no displeasure in the sound. She was no one's mother to tell them what they should and should not be doing. But before she could say anything else, her head whipped around at the sound of the crash, and she ducked down, reaching beneath her surgical table to retrieve a Sun Jet, her expression grim, as she moved out of the surgical area and towards the arena, "Behind me."

* * *

Galen fixes Violet with a rather flat look that says 'really?', because as a fighter he's used to taking point on Weird Noises. But then again he's vain enough - and lacking the shits enough to give - to argue. His towel is flung around his neck and the ends gripped with both hands as he follows after Violet to go investigate.

* * *

It's odd that the security guard they just saw pass by didn't dart back that way once the alarms started sounding. The reason for that becomes clear when they step out into the hallway - and into a river of blood. The man's stack hasn't been blown out, but he sustained a hit, center mass. If he's not dead yet, he's certainly dying.

* * *

In other circumstances, Violet might have stopped to help the man, but once she'd nudged his shoulder enough to check on the status of his stack, she left him where he lay, moving with that uncanny speed towards the arena, the weapon raised as she moved, using what shelter she could to try to mask the movement from one point to another. She had not been in retirement for so long that she would have forgotten her training.

* * *

The fact that Violet is actually only a hair shorter than he is, Galen actually has to lean to the side to get a view of the dying security guard in the hallway before she goes to check his status. "Well. That sucks." For that guy, anyway. Nonchalantly, the fighter is likewise just passing by the bleeding man, but he pauses not to check anything medical like Violet, but to relieve the man of his sidearm. "Sorry bud, you won't be needing this." He comments dryly then continues towards the arena, leaving bloody bare footprints in his wake.

* * *

Whoever shot the man did so with a very quiet weapon. There was no sound before the bang in the arena, but yet there's the security guard with a smoking hole in his chest. The alarm continues to blare.

When they reach the chute and enter into the arena, the lights are on a sequence that Galen will recognize well. It's the flashing light sequence used to introduce the fighters to the pit. And there, hanging with the back of his head blown off and the microphone wrapped around his neck is the bossman himself, synth blood dripping from the wound and drip-drip-dripping into a pool on the arena floor. Carnage's synth sleeve at least, is very much dead.

* * *

Violet came to a halt, as she exited the shoot and got a full dose of dead Carnage seared into her retinas. "Fuck me." She did not, however, immediately approach, instead beginning a circuit of the room, seeking for whomever might have been responsible for RDing, such as anyone could, a synth sleeve. She would not approach until she was certain there was no one else with them. "Galen, seal the doors behind me once I've cleared the space."

* * *

"Thanks, sweetheart, but seeing the bossman swinging from a microphone noose sort of ruined the mood for me." Galen replies drolly to Violet's exclamation, but to say he's unaffected by the sight due to his response would be a fallacy. His adam's apple bobs with a thick swallow, as if he can feel that cord around his own neck. "Uh, yeah. Sure." He comments to the directive, his own weapon hanging almost limply from the fingers at his side.

* * *

There's no one in the room. The sound of crashing was from a set of crates containing cans of various highballs that get sold during the fight. One crate has spilled open, while the other is intact. What's strange is that the crates look to have been deliberately tipped.

* * *

Violet, who, clearly, had much less trouble handling the sight of a dead body, any dead body, only threw back a, 'A raincheck then," as she cleared the room, pausing as she glanced from the body dripping to the crates that she passed on the way. "These two things did not happen at the same time, Galen. There's too much blood. He's been hanging for a while. And this…look at the spillage. No, this was to get our attention." Once the room was cleared, only then did she move to try to take Carnage's body down, and to check the condition of his neck, feeling for the signs of a damaged stack.

* * *

Galen sealed the doors like a good little boy, but there are a lot of exits from the Arena and so he's working his way around the perimeter of the room to lock, chair or bar all of them. "Didn't want him hanging here all night to be found in the morning. So who is it a message for?" Like the brilliant man he is, his temple gets a scratch in though with the muzzle of the sidearm.

* * *

Carnage looks pretty gruesome. Synths look uncanny valley in life. Carnage chose a deliberately creepy synth. And that synth dead looks like some kind of horror wax figure. His eyes are open, his teeth are bared and his skin looks bubbled. His stack is intact. The wound is all to the back of his head. And the blood…is cold.

There is also a shattered stack on a chain draped around his neck like jewelery.

* * *

Violet managed to hold the body with one arm, using her hip and a knee to manage it, sliding the gun away so that she could retrieve a folding knife from her pocket to cut the cord holding Carnage's corpse in place. She was clearly not about to touch anything, well, beside his body, if she could avoid it and risk damaging evidence. At least she still had the gloves on that she was wearing while she was at work, "At a best guess? Probably me." As the body's weight settled onto her, she bend her knees to avoid losing her balance, using the tip of the knife to lift up the stack on a chain around his neck, "I was the one who dug out that stack from Longbow's clone, and I received one of these on my door after I spun it up and interrogated it in VR." beat. "Stack looks intact. Held me get him on the ground so I can scan him to see if he's still in there."

* * *

"One of what? A dead body? Because damn, woman. Why are you at work and not, I don't know, porting to some solar system with a bunch of numbers in its name?" Galen crosses back over to the arena proper, setting his 'borrowed' gun on one of the crates that's toppled. Things like blood and lifeless sleeves don't seem to bother him, but the fact that it's Carnage seems to be what's giving him some pause. He even goes so far as to wipe his hands off on his pants before he goes to take most of the weight from Violet so they can lay the synth out on the ground.

* * *

Synths hit rigor faster that biological sleeves, so it's a bit like manhandling a fleshy mannequin. It's hard to tell how long his sleeve's been dead, but it's been a few hours at least.

* * *

"Not a dead body. This shattered stack. Seems someone or someone's don't like anyone investigating the Longbow incident." Violet was both careful and casual with Carnage. First, he was sleeve dead, so it wasn't as though he could feel any pain, but she did not manhandle him so badly that she would do more damage to his corpse than had already been done. At Galen's question, or something in it, she glanced up, "If I cut and run every time someone took a potshot at me, Galen, I'd be running so long and so far I would never stop." Once Carnage's corpse was on the ground, Violet withdrew her scanner from the other pocket of her pants, taking a knee, on which she propped up the corpse to scan to check the status of the DHF in his stack. "You know, if he's still in there, he's going to be pissed that someone slagged so much of his money."

* * *

"Yeah, but maybe we can convince him that the next model shouldn't be so nightmare inducing. Guess that's part of his charm." Galen stays in a crouch next to the body, watching Violet work. "Have you always been a sleeve tech? Because I wouldn't really think that was a high risk job."

* * *

The scans come up clean. Whoever slagged him, carefully avoided damage to his stack. The sleeve is obviously a write-off, but Carnage is still in there.

* * *

"Yes and no," was Violet's answer as she began the scan, scanning both for the presence of the DHF and its viability. "Started out in C-TAC as a combat medic oh…back in 2313…14?" A fuck long time ago. "Moved up from basic organic repair to working with the DHF…helping combat sleeve sickness, defrag, that sort of thing, implant and augments. Got out and needed a job, so here I am." She glanced up at Galen, "He's still waiting in there. And we're //probably going to need to call the police," though, well, that didn't seem to best please her, "But I'd rather get him into a fresh stack and see what he wants to do."

* * *

There is a little 'ah' from Galen at the explanation of Violet's history, sort of noncommittal as to how he fees about C-TAC in general by its tone. "He's already been dead a while, what's a little more time. C'mon, I'll help you move him to the suite. Grab his feet." See? Two people can give orders around here. Ha! Take that, soldier lady. His hands slip under the synth's shoulders and hitch into his armpits, smearing the gore from the wound on the back of Carnage's head onto his chest. Great. More showering in his future.

* * *

Violet was not, in her way, generally bossy, and so she didn't argue with Galen as he took the head and she the feet. "The police can get tied, as far as I'm concerned. We would never hear the end of it if we turned him over to them like that." Violet, was well a synth and had a few enhancements built into that mostly robot body, so getting him to the suite would not be much of a problem, "Might spin him up in virtual first, instead of just ramming him into a new sleeve. being in meat can send you for a look if you're not ready…though…if we have any synths…"

* * *

"We have the genetically modified beasts, but I can always call over to work and have something shipped over. Carnage can't complain about the cost if he's in stasis." Because you're damn right that Galen is going to use Carnage's imprint for the cost of such a maneuver. "I moonlight as a sleeve salesman." He explains as they move the stiff stiff towards the back room. "So you want plastic, I'll get you plastic."

* * *

"Do that. I don't want to have to deal with sensory overload if I get him into meat." Once the arrived at the surgery, Violet tipped her head at a spare bed. "Make the call. Something as high quality as you can manage, so he doesn't feel too down-market." She quirked her lips in a grin, at that, "I'll work on getting him into a fresh stack so we can slot him in once the sleeve's ready."

* * *

"Will do." Galen gives a mock salute before getting on his ONI, using the little silver cuff on his wrist to navigate the display that plays right to his optic receptors. "Uh, yeah man, this is Sparks. Look, I got a rush order but the client is willing to pay. You know that choice synth we have in..yeah." The one sided conversation continues. "Send it over to the Drome. Like, pronto."

* * *

While Galen took care of his business, Violet took care of hers. She settled Carnage onto the bed, regloving before she brought over the tools she would need to keep him stable until the new sleeve could arrive. She pulled a fresh, virgin stack as well as a spare, before she settled in his bedside, such as it were, to begin the deep scan she'd need before she moved him. "You ever wonder if Carnage is a meth himself?"

* * *

Galen stops the ONI conversation with whomever he made the requests of with a few blinks and then he's able to focus back on Violet. "Him? Naw…I mean, that might explain why he's hiding in such an ugly mug, but if he were a Meth why would he be running this shit hole? He'd have people doing it for him. And don't say it's because he loves the sport."

* * *

Violet shrugged as she worked, though she didn't look up from the task, "I have to admit, I don't know many meths, but, I do know they love to be in control. They love to flaunt their power. And the Rose does that, in its way. The more he gives the more people want. I imagine, after a while, if you're up in the clouds, you run out of challenges when you're surrounded by yes men. Still, I don't suppose it matters. His secrets are his secrets."

* * *

"Unless we get a dipper." Galen points out as he looks down at his chest and makes an errant swipe at the smear there then opts to find a towel and mop himself off a little. "We've got about twenty before pod arrives, so work your magic. I'd feel a whole lot better if Carnage could tell us what happened, though judging by the fact he was shot in the back of the head, I'm not sure he's going to be able to tell us much. But at least we'll know if he wants us to alert the authorities this time."

* * *

"You like the thought of dying that much? Shit, I could copy his stack right now and have all of his secrets, but I value my life too much. Cause if he found out? There wouldn't be a hole deep enough to throw us in." Violet continued working, and the systems Carnage had himself paid for were good, "Why don't you go grab another shower. he's as ready as he's going to be before his sleeve gets here."

* * *

"Dying would put a real damper on my sex life." Galen is just making a bigger mess with the rag and at Violet's suggestion, he just nods and tosses the square of bloody fabric onto the floor beneath the surgical bed to be cleaned up with the rest of the mess. "Yeah, yeah. You wanna join? I'm sure my back is dirty too." There is a arch to his brow but the smirk on his face indicates he's just giving her shit because he can. He's Galen Sparks after all.

* * *

"No truer words have ever been spoken." Galen's offer sparked a snort as she sat back, "I have the feeling you'd prefer someone who was actually able to be something a bit better than a sex doll, Galen. And I can't do a convincing fake orgasm scream to save my life. So I think as delightful as I could look," and here she switched to flaming red hair and slightly softened her features, "I think I wouldn't be much good for anything but actually washing your back. Go on, the sleeve should be here soon, and I might need you to help with the transfer."

* * *

By the time Galen was making his way back from the shower, the surgery had been prepped, the synth had arrived, and Violet was nearly at the end of the run-up of the program needed to spin up Carnage's DHF which she had transferred from the stack still in the neck of his body, such as it was, and the new, fresh stack Violet had slotted into the body when it had arrived. The look of the thing was standard enough. Male, built, tall. Not really that different from Galen. A soldier's physique. Luck of the draw or just a synthetic recreation of the current fashion of male synths which the fighter was born to and most men aspired to. These were the sorts of thoughts that were chugging along in Violet's head as she worked, leaving the final run command until Galen had actually returned.

* * *

Galen returns from the showers, freshly washed of all brain matter and assorted gore that he slogged through passing the dead security guard in the hall and helping to transfer Carnage's body to the suite. He had the foresight to get dressed this time, though the term is used loosely for the man, who is in a pair of pants that appear silver in some light or blue in another and a clear tank top that shows off every scar and muscle he's earned. "Oooh, you saved me my favorite part. All systems…go!" He comments as he reaches over and toggles the new sleeve on.

* * *

As commonplace as switching sleeves has become, and even with the Panama Rose's more state-of-the-art system, resleeving is still not comfortable. It's especially tough after being spun up from being murdered. The stack records everything up until the moment of brain death, so if the death was violent, you remember it.

Carnage shoots up seconds after the transfer completes, sucking in a violent breath. All the machines scream at Violet, indicating the transfer was a success. But even synths get sleeve sick. He looks like he's about to hurl, but fortunately there is literally nothing in the synth's stomach. It's several seconds of dry heaving before, "Who the FUCK do I have to kill?" in a deep baritone.

* * *

"Least I could do, considering I probably bruised your ego as it hasn't been bruised since you were a couple of feet shorter and still waiting for your voice to break." Violet remained at the console's chair, leaning back so that Galen could execute the program and bring Carnage back from wherever DHF lived in the between times of life. She did use the toe of her boot to push back from bed though, leaving Galen to handle Carnage if he came back swinging. Which, was pretty close to precisely how he did come back, even if he didn't take a pot shot at Galen. "Hopefully neither of us." As soon as he was up, Violet stepped forward, her words curt, "On your arm." Just to let him know where she was about to inject the serum that would help him get over the shakes a bit faster than he would have otherwise.

* * *

"You greatly underestimate my ego." Is all Galen responds to Violet before Carnage is jolting back to the here and now. "We were hoping you could tell us, actually." Galen just stands there with his arms crossed over his chest, not rushing forward to help the sleeve sick synth, as Violet is more adequately equipped to do so. "We found you hanging in the arena by your mic cord, because someone wanted you to be found. You'd been gone for a while already."

* * *

Carnage puts his hands to his neck, then glances over at Violet. Huh? Oh. He sticks an arm out. The shakes are already starting after the initial jolt of adrenaline wore off. "I had just been dropped off at my place in an aircar and I got jumped by…" he stops. As he speaks, his synth voice has a strange almost surfer-dude sounding cadence to it. "…what the fuck kind of sleeve did you put me in, Grey?" He looks down at himself. "I look like…" then he looks over at Galen. "…him." There's a sneer. He's never liked looking human. Hard to say exactly why.

Suddenly, there's a light that flashes overhead - a pulsing red light. It's the silent alarm - a signal that the authorities are on the way. He turns artificially icy blue eyes on the two of them. The sneer is less fearsome than on his usual sleeve, but it's still there. "Yu called the cops?! Are you two morons?"

* * *

Violet didn't waste time bantering with Galen, despite the fact that she looked like a retort was on the very tip of her tongue. Instead, she did what Carnage paid her to do, and shot him full of a dose high enough to get him back on his feet. "The best money could buy." She chucked her chin in Galen's direction, "He's all the rage." But that was as far as she got before the alarm went off, "We didn't call anyone. Just like we didn't even know you were strung up until someone killed a guard and purposefully made enough of a racket to get our attention, and get us down to the pit a few hours after they strung you up." She shifted her attention to Galen, "Get him up and get him out before the cops get here. I'll run interference."

* * *

"Hey, at least it's a Synth. You're lucky, we have pretty limited stock of those. And don't worry, I used your account." Galen tells Carnage, "Moron is clearly stated on my resume, right under dashing good looks and sharp wit. Not my fault that you didn't read the fine print when I signed on with the Drome. But no, like my compatriot here said, wasn't us, boss." He's coming forward and makes a gimme motion at Carnage to help him. "Feed 'em the dead security guard."

* * *

"I am not leaving, Grey. They're not going to arrest me. I'm the victim here. What am I gonna do, run and hide? I do that and all my business dries up. And I fucking hate this sleeve. Sparks, what were you thinking?" Carnage gets himself to his feet and promptly has to sit back down again. He looks like he wants to rip someone's throat out. Somehow less scary with all the muscles than with the sideshow appearance.

"This has to be an inside job. Someone with night access had to let them in here to dump me, and that's a short list." He grinds his teeth. "This must be about the TBT."

* * *

Naoko arrives from the RP Room Lobby.

* * *

"Alright." Violet stepped away from where Carnage and Galen were sitting and standing respectively, clearing an area so that neither man would end up being crowded. She pushed aside the equipment as well, because she'd be damned if she'd let that get wrecked. Priorities. She also took the time to stow the weapon she had pulled out back in its usual space, seeming entirely content to wait for the cops to arrive. This was Carnage's wheelhouse, even if he did, currently, look as though he'd rather be catching waves than catching the people who were responsible for ruining a very expensive sleeve. "I'd say knock the guard off, but he could have been nothing more than covering their tracks."

* * *

The call comes through on Naoko's ONI, since she's the closest ranking officer to the Panama Rose at the time of the call. The code that scrolls across her screen indicates a break and enter in progress with a man spotted leaving the scene armed. There's other backup units on the way.

* * *

Galen merely shrugs in the face of Carnage's rage, mainly because he knows when he's really earned the ire or when it's just Carnage being Carnage. "Hey. I could have given you tits." Pointing out that it could always be worse. "But whoever did it couldn't have acted alone. It took two of us to get you down, no way one person even modified could have knocked you off, transported you here, and strung you up and gone unnoticed."

* * *

Carnage makes a low, growling sound that doesn't really work in the synth he currently inhabits. "The timing is suspect." He flicks his gaze between the two of them. "I recently got my hands on a purported to be clean version of the Hippodrome Longbow TBT. As you can imagine, there'd be a lot of money in that, especially after I chopped off the whole part where she slagged her stack. People would pay extra to feel that ending." He chuckles darkly.

He glares up at the flashing light, then turns his attention to Galen. "You're friends with the gangster that owns Liquid Air, right? Well, tell him I want him to shake down everyone who had after hours access to this place until someone breaks or they find another body." Huff. "And if they don't find another body, make one. I smell a rat."

* * *

"Understood, Perez enroute to investigate." Naoko voices to her ONI, letting it transmit her reply for her as she checks her sidearm before stepping out onto the street. No one ever really wants to get this kind of call when they're alone, but what can you do?

"Panama fucking Rose," she mutters to herself as she makes her way, eyes sharp for the armed suspect. "You've got to be kidding me." She leans forward into a run until she hits the corner by the Rose, weapon drawn and held down by her side while she scans the block ahead. "Really, what is it with this place." she murmurs to herself.

* * *

Violet whistled, though the sound was low and slow, "And here I thought this was about sending a message to me, because you let me get out with the stack." Violet was not privy to Carnage's other business, nor had she ever tried to be. "Clearly it's worth killing for." She paused, and then, whether Carnage would care or not, probably not, "We weren't going to let the cops have you without letting you have a chance to speak for yourself." Which was all the explanation she had to offer for why they shoved him into the sort of synth that probably gave Carnage nightmares the way he gave them to others. But with that poor platitude offered, she pushed across on her chair to access the cameras on one of the workstations. "Cops..correction, cop, has arrived. Want me to bring her down?"

* * *

"Hey man, I better get my cut." Galen comments about the TBT, seeming how he was the other fighter in the recording. Of course it's said in a pithy manner, because he already got paid for the bout, and all those sorts of rights belong to the Drome. "And friends is a pretty loose term, Carnie, but I'm sure he'll do you a solid as long as you scratch his back later down the road. One shakedown, coming right up."

* * *

"Not the fight, Sparks. The titty dance once. You haven't heard about it? I'm sure Grey can fill you in. She seems like someone who keeps her finger on the pulse of the underworld. Just turn it off before the end bit. Pretty hot up until that point." Carnage grunts, then upnods at Violet. "Go see 'em in. Peacable-like. I pay my taxes, so I expect there'll be a few units here soon enough." By 'taxes' he means bribes, to not ignore a break and enter at the Panama Rose like they might at another place on the Ground.

The exterior of the Panama Rose is dark, but the back stage door is wide open. There's a puddle of synth blood located just outside the door, and scorch marks from where an aircar lifted off the ground quickly.

* * *

"Perez checking in, I'm onsite and it looks like the perp may have fled by aircar. Approaching units be advised." Naoko sighs, letting her ONI transmit the message for her as she approaches the opened door on foot. Her eyes narrow as she catches sight of the blood. "Approaching the building," she adds more warily before the holographic overlay flickers away, her weapon raising a tick, but not pointed in front of her just yet.

"BCPD," Naoko calls out to the open door. Ignoring the pound of her heart, she approaches, and looks in.

* * *

"I knew there was another reason you kept me around." Violet was not about to lie and claim she did not like to keep her ear to the ground. But at Carnage's order, she stood up from her chair, making short work of the distance between the surgery and the stage door where she could let in the constabulary. Or rather, where she could intercept them and escort them back to where Carnage was waiting. She arrived just in time to spy Naoko, but she did not approach the officer, lest she end up with a few unfortunate holes in her own sleeve. "He's down in surgery, if you want to meet the victim."

* * *

"You are?" Naoko asks tersely, weapon raised and trained on Violet's form as soon as she sees her. An eyebrow arches when the woman mentions surgery. Given the particularly bright spatter outside the door…

"The owner was attacked?" isn't too far of a jump in logic.

First question needs answered before she'll lower that weapon of hers, though.

* * *

Despite the gun which was now firmly trained on her, Violet did not seem much bothered by the seeming aggression. The woman was a cop doing the sort of thing cops did at times and in places like these. "Doctor Violet Grey." No point in lying about that either. A simply ONI scan would reveal that, as well as far too many years of military history. And her status as employed at the Rose, "He was. Now, if you'd like to follow me, I can lead you back to where he's waiting for you."

* * *

Naoko simply nods when Violet introduces herself, finding time too pressing to follow up with an immedate lookup. "We received a report there was a breaking and entering, as well as an armed suspect leaving the building. How many in total were there?" Apparently, the officer has trouble believing just one person could have caused all this. She does lower her weapon, though, keeping it by her side.

* * *

"To be quite honest, I have no idea. I was working down here alone, when I heard the alarm go off down on the stage level, and I came out to find him, mostly dead," and the poor security guard was entirely dead now, "But not RDed, so I preceded down to the stage where I found Carnage." Violet led the way back through the drome, taking, of course, all of the official routes, before she paused outside of the surgery, which still had it's doors open. Within the room was Carnage. On a slab, and a very much fashionable synth waiting on the bed beside the sleeve dead owner. "Carnage," Violet offered, as she waved a hand on surfer boy's direction. "The police." Back towards Naoko.

* * *

Carnage has a reputation for not being someone you mess with. He's a showman of the bloody variety, and he zealously guards his territory. He also has friends in the police - especially among those who like to gamble. Word around Fell Street is that he's got some deep red in his ledger for some fairly influential cops - maybe even the chief. And he's certainly cozy with the meths - or at least their representatives. Normally, he's in a very inhuman looking synth who looks like a walking, talking marionette or a horror movie mannequin.

Right now, he's in the body of a too-handsome-to-be-real synth, right down to the slight sheen on his skin that happens to synths when they're just dragged out of storage. But the ONI scan checks out. He's Carnage all right. "Just one of you? Jesus Christ."

* * *

When she scans him, a flicker of Naoko's ONI accompanies the silent sending of a message reporting her latest status update - the victims, their statuses, her current location. She was already riding a thin line entering alone, and is uninterested in pressing her luck any further — especially should an accident happen.

Like the Rose's owner becoming violently angry only one cop is currently on his doorstep, for example. And so late, from the synth's point of view.

"I'm Lieutenant Perez," she informs him deadpan. "and happened to be closest when the call went out. Additional units are enroute. What happened here? Walk me through it."

* * *

Violet, having delivered the package, such as she was, made her way back into the surgery, being careful never to get out of Naoko's line of sight. She was, in point of fact, heading towards her patient. Nor did she explain how Carnage ended up no longer in his own dead sleeve. The surgery was a full complement of resleeving tech, and her own bio would have listed her as a doctor who specialized in it. "I'm going to continue to monitor him, if you don't mind, Lieutenant. He's still recovering." From being mostly dead.

* * *

Carnage's synth hands grip tight on the side of the biobed. The model Galen got for him must have augmented strength because there are little dents forming in the metal. "Someone jumped me outside my place. A couple of someones. They were wearing masks. They threw a bag over my head, flew somewhere in an aircar, then stuck me down on my knees and blew the back of my head out." He grinds his teeth. "And then apparently, dragged me back here and strung me up like Christmas. Who filed the report?"

Naoko's records show no one filed a report. The message of a disturbance came to the anonymous tip line.

* * *

The reported event, and how much time she figures must have taken place between the initial kidnapping and carting him back … Naoko puts aside her discomfort, pulling back the requested information. She's looking slightly off to the side when she shakes her head, finally sliding away her weapon back into its holster. "It was called in anonymously," she reports with a flattening of her tone. There's only the barest of pauses. "Masks — anything identifable about them? Clown masks, ski masks?"

* * *

Since she isn't the one currently being interrogated, Violet goes about her business, scanning Surfer-Carnage and checking the levels of the drugs in his system as well as how well he's acclimating to his new and hopefully temporary sleeve. Finding that she doesn't need to administer anything else at the moment, she finds herself the seat she abandoned and settled back in to wait.

* * *

"I think they were scatter masks." Masks that pull up fragments of a face to try and block or fool facial recogntion. "I can't be sure but I saw something glint kinda…kinda funny before they jumped me." Carnage looks a little woozy. His anger was staving off the worst of the sleeve sickness, but it's setting in. Not much can be done about it, except a dose of Dwell and rest.

The police ONI channel flashes with a message for Naoko. Two more units have just arrived.

* * *

Naoko keeps to the subject at hand, ignoring most distractions to the conversation. Violet receives only a glance as she goes through her scan, the officer's attention returning to the synth. It might be easy for some to forget who they were talking to when they wore a different face, but she keeps laser focus. "Did the kidnappers say anything to indicate why you were being targetted?" she asks straightforward enough, holding other questions she has until that's answered.

* * *

"Lieutenant, while I know how important it is to get to the bottom of this, my patient needs time to rest and adjust to his new sleeve." Violet was not angry, but she was, as most doctors were, to the point. And she was not ordering, but, perhaps, in her way, giving Carnage a way out, if he wanted it. Which he probably didn't, but there you are.

* * *

"No ma'am," says Carnage. He can lie with a perfectly straight face, even when it's not his face. "But as you can imagine, there's no shortage of people in this town who have something against me. Most of them are just not so bugfuck stupid to come at me direct." He grinds his teeth. That'd be disconcerting on his actual sleeve, but it just looks kind of strange on this one.

The other two units arrive outside, and Tanaka himself emerges in his cheap suit. "Secure the scene," he says to the half dozen uniforms that spread out. The chief moves in through the open door, and within a few moments, locates the crew. "Perez, get out there and take control of the scene." He stops and looks at Violet. "Don't go anywhere until we get your statement, but I need to speak to Carnage."

Theres a smug look on the surfer-synth's face. Interesting how Tanaka doesn't seem to question why the proprieter is not in his proper sleeve. Then again, he may have pieced things together given where they're sitting, and the fact that the ONI rolls up the proper ID.

* * *

Violet, having only just settled herself, rose as the Captain arrived and orders her out. She doesn't bother with anything like, 'I'll be right outside.' First, because Carnage wouldn't appreciate Violet pretending at a sense of mothering she doesn't feel, and second, because he knows her well enough to know she would find a way to get inside if his good self was in danger. "Of course, Captain." She moved to depart, though she doesn't go beyond moving to the hallway unless she's shooed off by the police.

* * *

Even before Carnage gets to making his excuse, it's clear Naoko doesn't buy it. "So you're saying it had nothing to do with—"

'the clone incident the other night' just might have been the next thing out of her mouth, but she snaps the query off before getting that far. She glances sidelong back at the beach-ready synth before any sourness disappears from her expression. When Tanaka addresses her directly, she nods curtly. "Yes, sir." she replies swiftly, turning on her heel to do as directed. Currently, that would include keeping an eye on Violet, if not taking her statement herself.