Agent Hawkins stood at the main entrance of the school that had experienced the recent and mysterious "bomb threat". The rain continued to pour, and Hawkins couldn't shake the feeling that it meant something.
Whether or not this institution had night hours like other schools in the area, it was likely still closed for the time being until the police were finished investigating. Knowing this, Hawkins decided to knock.
A female officer with subtle feline features opened the door, meeting Hawkins already holding out his badge at eye level. Before even giving her a chance to react, Hawkins began. "Agent Hawkins, Bureau of Paranormal Investigations. I believe the police here were notified of my coming arrival?"
Caught off-guard, it took the officer a second to respond. "Er.. yes we were. But we didn't expect you to arrive until tomorrow!"
Hawkins brushed this news aside. "There's much work to be done officer. Besides, my hotel room isn't ready yet." It seemed out for such a light-humored joke to come from this enigmatic figure. The officer took a good look at the mask that made up the agent's face. It appeared as though the eyes of the mask shifted and expressed emotion in an imitation of normal eyes.
Hawkins moved past her, and began walking down the school corridor. "The Police are stationed in the Administrative office, correct?" Under the harsh florescent lighting, the officer could tell that the Agent's clothing was actually a dark shabby gray, rather than the imposing black he appeared to wear, silhouetted at the door.
The officer nervously called out to him. "Yes! But don't you want me to tell you where it is?"
She wasn't sure, but it sounded like the gent had chuckled softly. "Don't worry ma'am. I can find my way. I have... a good intuition, suffice it to say." WIth that, Hawkins rounded past a corner, and was out of sight.
Intuition. That was just the word to describe the main benefit of Agent Hawkin's new state of being. Ever since he had been exposed to the sun, he had an uncanny ability to suss out the proper avenue of investigation, peeling apart random circumstance from the important information, looking in the right places.
When he had arrived in town, Hawkins already had a brief idea of where to begin his investigations. The newsfox, Jay, was his first stop from the beginning, being the recipient of "Knight's" classified information. And from that one visit, Hawkins could detect a pattern of events. The recent center of media attention, Toby, for starters. Not only had he/she been recently involved in a large court case, but soon after he and his wife's change, they had been subject to an "event". From that event, Hawkins also learned of the "Magical girl" phenomenon, a possible group of children of undetermined number with knowledge and or ability in dealing with these "events". That would be Hawkins' next big lead.
But for now, the recent bomb scare. Although available experts had determined the planted device was not a conventional explosive, Hawkins doubted that this was some simple prank.
Before Hawkins could finish his ruminations, he had miraculously made his way to the Administrative office. The Harpy Lieutenant waved Hawkins in. "Officer Reynolds radioed ahead telling us you'd arrived. I'm Lieutenant Jameson, and I'm the one in charge here. Honestly it's probably a good thing you've arrived so soon. Most of us were about ready to pack it in and move out."
Hawkins sat down in a proffered chair. "You might be correct in that the school may well soon be allowed to go on as normal, that doesn't mean there is not yet much to be discovered here."
Lieutenant Jameson seemed surprised. "Really? The bomb appears to be a dud. Our experts can't find anything about it that goes boom."
Hawkins gripped the brim of his fedora. "The thing is. It may not be that this device necessarily is meant to go boom in the conventional sense. At any rate, it deserves a full investigation. Hawkins considered his next move. "Now before I look at the device in question, I wish to have an idea of the situation around it. I recall being informed that a few individuals were found near the device. Can you tell me who they were?"
Jameson nodded. "Yeah, a pair of young female students, it appears that they tried to "disable" the device, if it was going to do anything anyways. And apparently Anderson L. Collins was there as well. Don't know what to make of that."
Young female students... Another example of this magical girl phenomenon? It would likely be fruitful to investigate. And Collins.. now THAT was interesting. The employer of Toby, defendant in the court case, and another recent transformee. The connections were already forming in Hawkins' head.
"What state was Collins in?"
"Well, that's where things get really odd. She seemed highly distraught, and apparently something about her transformation's made it so she can't speak English, or even understand it! So it's been difficult to get a statement from her, as you can imagine."
"Go on..."
"From what we gather, it seems that Anderson found out about the device and tried to warn people in the building. But some witnesses say they saw her flying towards the building. It would make sense if she was able to plant the bomb without anyone knowing, but there's nothing we can really go on."
Hawkins held his chin, thinking. "Why would someone plant a bomb, only to warn the people inside, especially when it seems to be unable to do anything?"
The harpy Lieutenant nodded. "That's exactly it. Nothing she's done matches up with her being a sudden "mad-bomber". All we can really do now is keep an eye on her. Officer Will's on that assignment."
Hawkins seemed satisfied question-wise at the moment. "Thank you. I think I'm ready to take a look at this thing now."
Lieutenant Jameson lead Agent Hawkins to where they kept the device.
