[CB] Chasing shadows (Draylontis)

Communication room

This was the room those in the 12th squadron used to stay in contact with those in the human world. It was well past midnight in Sereitei. With all the computers, monitors, and other instruments it was shocking to know there wasn't a clock on the wall. Amid the hum of the machines filled with power was the sound of keys being hit on the keyboards. There was minor chatter as those on duty responded to the numerous requests as they came up. Of the many things that they did in the Research and Development division this was by far the tamest. This job was more important the others they did. Providing back-up and support to their fellow shinigami was without a doubt made up for the strange antics the squad was known for. As exciting as it could be at times it was rather dull. In essence they were on par with phone operators. But how many phone operators had to direct shinigami deployment Not that it was a bad thing, but the matters they dealt with put them on par with an emergency dispatcher. Even with his higher ranking Arawn didn't weasel out of doing his shifts on the floor. But when things were this slow he was sorely tempted to reconsider his choice in that matter. Most of his work that night had been tracking of signals. Of the fifteen he'd seen only six resulted in actual hollow emergence. The shinigami managed to handle all of them with ease. In the hour that followed he had nothing to report other than two soul burials. He sat there staring at the screen trying his best not to look too bored.

Bryce sitting to his right wasn't bored in the slightest. That being said since his arms did the work while his attention was elsewhere. While the tentacle tapped on the keys he watched another screen. The image on the screen was of students sparring. It seemed the strange man's habit of spying on the training shinigami hadn't lessened. If there was ever a fight in Seireitei Bryce watched it. The hunchback chuckled as one of the fighters was knocked back by a well placed kick to the other man's head. Arawn pushed the envious thoughts of having an extra limb aside. It would be great to do things without having to pay attention.
"Could you at least pretend you'd doing work?" Arawn asked with a sigh.
"Sorry man, but this guy is go_ He just did a spinning kick!" Bryce replied pointing at the screen with his normal arm. Arawn could punish the man, but after all that they've been through together it was hard to crack the whip.

Draylon woke up after a long sleep, and after glancing at the clock realized that he had overslept and was supposed to relieve the people in the comms room about 20 minutes ago. Damn it! Dray hopped out of bed and quickly got ready to go and stepped outside into the night, it was late and cold, but of course that was normal considering it was 2:21 am. He shook himself out and started running over to the comms building, eventually switching over to using shun-po. I just got back from a 10 month mission and they are already putting me back on the cycle for comms, i guess that just shows you how much people hate being on the comms systems. I just hope that the people I'm supposed to relieve aren't that upset with me. As Dray hurried over he heard someone yell off in the distance, probably at him to slow down or something.

As He approached the comms he slowed down to adjust his uniform and walked up to the door and knocked on it sharply a few times, waiting for those inside to respond.

The knock at the door was a welcome distraction from Bryce's giggling and the blank terminals before him.
"I'll get it." he said as he rose from his station. The door was open, but it was fine excuse to stretch his legs. As he stood he noted that no one else in the room was even paying attention to him or the knocking. Most of them were glued to their screens, others were talking among themselves. Not like it mattered he stifled a yawn and moved between the stations to the entrance door. A few more hours and he could get some sleep. Reaching into this inner pocket he pulled out his phone. Looking at the time didn't make him feel any better. It wasn't as late as he thought. 2:25 am was not as close to 5am as he'd like. With a groan he put the phone back and opened the door.

Arawn eyed the young man on the other side of the portal for a moment. For some reason the person looked awfully familiar. As always his facial recall was lacking. "Welcome. Come on in." Arawn said with a bow from the waist. Anyone that didn't know him would interpret such a gesture as sarcasm. Here was the higher ranked officer and yet he was opening doors. Honestly Arawn didn't mind, not like he wanted people to bow and salute to him. Rank was rather awkward thing. With a shrug he shuffled back to his station. Again he stifled a yawn before flopping back into his chair. In the moments he'd taken to let the man in nothing had changed on the screen. On Bryce's screen another fight had started; two females much to the short man's delight.

Draylon could feel all the electrical equipment in the room before him, as the door opened the man behind it bowed, draylon recognized the face and recalled some sort of rogue robot, throwing that image out of his mind he said, "Thank You." and hurried over to station 9, tapping the man on the shoulder and said, "I'm here to take over for you." The other man spun around slightly angry and said, "You're LATE!" Then realized that he was speaking to a higher seat than himself mumbled an apology, grabbed his things and hurried out of the building.

Dray set down his things and set his hand on the computer, rapidly accessing the recent information and reviewing it, information rapidly flickering across the screen. He noticed the man that had opened the door sat down next to him at the next station, next to him was a man with extra arms, who he also faintly recalled. After he had reviewed the information he remarked to the man who had opened the door for him, "Slow night so it seems." As he looked over he saw the multi-armed man watching two females fighting. "What is he watching over there?" Dray then noticed that the man was a higher seat than himself and quickly added a "Sir."

"Hmmmmm?" Arawn said half paying attention. He had long since gotten used to Bryce's late night entertainment he had assumed others had as well. Since there was little activity he wasn't too concerned with turning away from his station to reply. "He's watching some fights." He said simply as he pulled at his ear absentmindedly. Turning to Bryce he quickly asked "Is that a new one or just a replay?"
There was no response form the hunchback as the match was now in full swing. One of the girls had managed to rip the others uniform. The other man was glued to the screen with a wide grin on his face. There was little doubt the spectacle of the fight was now taking second chair to the chance of seeing naked flesh. Arawn cough rather loudly and tried to get the man's attention. Still nothing.

"Bryce!" he shouted startling himself and his friend. The tentacle that replaced is left curled violently. The purple limb jerked back and forth like a snake eying it's prey. His hand reached the keyboard to his left and pressed a key. The video paused as the man turned to look at the red haired shinigami for the first time.
"What's wrong?" he asked quietly as Arawn sighed.
"Nevermind." came the response. It had to be a recording. Only now did Arawn notice that the setting was a bright sunny day. The muscular arm that rested on the short man's back reached forth and tapped at the keyboard. After a short delay the video resumed. The tentacle didn't return to his place on the keyboard behind him. Arawn turned away as Bryce returned to watching the show. He returned to looking at Draylontis.
"It's slow now, but probably due to that fire in the dormitory I heard about."

Dray watched the fight going on as the man explained about his companion and as he attempted, apparently in vain to get his attention. He watched as one of the girls ripped the others uniform open. The man seemed to be ignoring his companion even more now. I have to admit if i was in his position i wouldn't want to turn it off either. Dray pulled his eyes away from the screen, Arashi no me doesn't doesn't like it when he looks at other women too intently. Right after that the man shouted and the man watching paused it and asked what was wrong, after determining it wasn't anything important, turned back to his video and started it up again. He turned you back to the man who had opened the door for him.

Draylon raised an eyebrow and the mention of a fire, he hadn't heard about any fire, but then again it was to be expected after having been gone so long. "When did this fire happen?" I wouldn't really think that a fire would decrease comm traffic. So he said, "Why would a fire decrease comm traffic?"

One more he focused on his terminal. His elbow resting on the desk Arawn cradled his chin as the refreshed the read out on the computer. This was the fourth time checking. Having completed the task he turned back to the inquisitive young man. They were supposed to be working, but there was nothing to do. While sitting around talking was hardly appropriate, it was better than ogling girls as they fought. Arawn glanced sideways at Bryce and sighed. The man was a genius with mechanics and computer programing. How could he be so easily distracted by such things? With a shrug he returned his thoughts to the other man's question.

"The fire was a couple hours ago, I'm surprised you haven't heard about it." he said genuinely surprised. Arawn had been in the communications area when the first call arrived announcing the emergency. The sleeping fortress of shinigami became instantly active when the dorms was set ablaze. He pointed to a corner of the room where several people sat at terminals. The group numbered at least twelve. They all looked rather haggard and sweat covered all of their brows. Unlike the rest this cluster was typing feverishly and talking in hushed tones. "A special group was selected to coordinate the fire efforts." Arawn yawned again. "Seems some of our squad was sent to investigate things as well. So many shinigami are trying to help out that over half of the patrols were cancelled." Such a disaster was unheard of in Soul Society. The death toll of the students in the dorms was still unknown. Truth be told he really didn't want to think about it, but he wondered how such a thing could happen. Even if he wasn't part of the investigation he'd heard that there had been explosions. If that was the case the whole thing may not be an accident. The way they were keeping quiet about things pointed to that fact. Who would commit such an atrocity? Someone had to have seen something.

"It's probably going to be a while before things return to normal." He said while popping his stiff neck. "I've heard they're going to group the students into some of the barracks. As a matter of fact_" his words stopped and his eyes lit up. Arawn got up from his seat and jabbed Bryce.
"Hey! Do those cameras cover the dormitory!?" he shook the rotund man violently. The man's tentacle grabbed at Arawn, but was quickly swatted away. He was referring to the video surveillance that Bryce leeched his signal from to record the fights.

Draylon was surprised he hadn't seen the fire when he came out of his own barracks room. He recalled the man who had yelled and realized that the man was probably yelling about the fire and not at him to slow down as he had surmised. He looked over at the group rapidly working and talking. So i slept through probably one of the most important events in recent history. But damn half of the patrols are canceled? this must be a huge fire! Given the structure and setup of the buildings it seems like such a fire occurring naturally would be impossible.

Suddenly Arawn cut off asking the man next to him violently if his camera's extended to the dormitories as well. The man seemed stunned so dray quickly rolled his chair over and put his hand on the computer, pausing and minimizing the fight and bringing up any current images of the dormitories he could find using the man's access to the surveillance network.

Upon touching the keyboard Draylon was rewarded for his efforts with the rather slimy tentacle reaching for his left hand while the muscular arm reached for his right hand. Bryce recovered quickly from his stupor when the younger man attempted to access his computer. For a man that lived glued to a computer over 19hrs in a day nothing was more sacred than his terminal. The short man stared at the upstart with utter contempt. Arawn froze as well wondering why the other shinigami had taken it upon himself to interfere.
"What do you think you're doing!?" Bryce asked in a rather shrill voice. It was obvious that he wasn't too happy with other man. His eyes drifted past Draylon and locked on Arawn and pulled him to the side. Their backs now to the third man he addressed his friend "Those cameras are supposed to be a secret." he said in a not so quiet whisper! Now he knows about it!"
Arawn looked back at Draylon sceptically and shrugged. He shook his head and gave a weak slap to the other man's head.
"Who cares!?" he said simply. "No one will believe him even if he talks! That's be side the point. Think about it; we can find out who set the fire with the cameras. This investigation could be over in a couple of hours."

Bryce listened Arawn's words. His right hand rubbed his chin while the tentacle took this time to tickle his own ear lobe. For the most part Bryce ignored the strange limb's antics, but his time his third arm swatted the annoyance away. The short man was frowning.
"We could, but then if anyone learns about the surveillance system I could get in trouble." He paused then continued. "I figure the punishment squad won't be happy to know I've been watching everyone."
Arawn's eyebrow raised, he had often been curious to why there would be a vast camera system observing the goings on of Seireitei. While he hadn't bothered to find out, instead he had ignored it so long as Bryce didn't do anything unethical. So far the man only restricted himself to watching sparring matches. Now was a chance to put the strange system to good use. "If we just point out the culprit no one will believe us and they'll ask how we know they're the ones responsible. "
"So you think we should find proof other than the video?" Arawn asked.
"Yes." Bryce calmly replied. Arawn knew the man had a point. They could get into serious trouble if anyone found the cameras network. Bryce was thinking about that, but Arawn had the feeling it was more the fact the man didn't want to lose his source of entertainment.
"Fine." Arawn sighed. "Try to track them on the system and we'll get some proof." Arawn put emphasis on the 'we'll' his eye locking on Draylon. He gave a forced smile. "Well it looks like you're in for now. If we go down we'll be sure to implement you as well. Be sure not to mention this to anyone, understood?" As he spoke Bryce turned away from the computer and pulled a laptop from a back beneath his desk. He plugged the device into one of the computer's ports and began to type.

As Draylon reached for the usb port a slimy tentacle firmly gripped his hand. The man yelled in his face, obviously extremely upset, It's just a standard terminal... what is he so upset about. He jerked his hand back as the man let go and began a not so quiet conversation with Arawn. Apparently the cameras were supposed to be a secret and noone knew about them, not even the punishment squad, they must be either high ranking or personal, probably personal otherwise the person would have used them to find out who started the fires if the cameras even covered that area.

They began talking about whether or not they would be able to use the cameras as evidence, they apparently decided against it but wanted to use the cameras to identify the people then get other evidence to prove the culprits guilt as to not get in trouble with the punishment squad and apparently he was going to be helping them...

Dray said, in a somewhat quiet voice, "Fine, I'll help you out, lets get this done." He moved over to the tentacled man and said, "Sorry about that before, it was rude and i apologize." I hope he accepts my apology, if we are going to be forced to work together we might as well be on good terms.

Bryce's fingers flew across the keyboard. There was only the rhythmic sounds of the keys clicking as Arawn watched him. In a fight the man was as useful as a used tissue. But in a lab or on a keyboard he master in his own right. The safety protocols and firewalls that hid the surveillance system rivaled that of a military installation on Earth. But to Bryce they were better putting out a welcome mat. Nothing could keep him out. When human hackers prayed it was to this odd three armed hunchback they prayed to. He was their god. The database was laid open before him and he sought out the files needed. So much information to sift through and yet he factored it all withing seconds. His normal hand and his strong muscular hand worked at a furious pace to keep up with his thought processes. It only took minutes for him to find the camera in question, but what he found wasn't what he expected.
"The camera is dark." He said his fingers still working on the laptop's keyboard without pausing. "It's been out for hours now." The tentacle scratched his balding head to further accent the man's puzzlement.

"How is that possible?" Arawn as as surprised as Bryce. From what he knew, the cameras were almost impossible to spot if one didn't know where to look. Bryce had to point one out that was in their own barracks. Whoever had created them had made them quite covert. They didn't find it, but the figured it's general area.
"I'm not sure." came the other man's reply. Arawn didn't miss how the man's fingers hit the keys abit harder. He wasn't too happy with the thought of someone disabling the network. "I got video of the moments before." As he spoke these words the video of the fight was replaced by that of different scene. It was a block or more from the dormitory and something flashed in front of the camera and the screen when black. "Damn! That's as slow as I can get it." Bryce said still typing feverishly.
"Can you back track whatever it was? The cameras must have captured the guy taking out the camera." Arawn suggested.
"Maybe, but there are alot of blind spots." Bryce went back to typing as the tentacle waved back and forth impatiently. "I got something." he said after staring intently at his screen. The video on the monitor changed once again. A building could be seen and a figure moving away from it. "This is the best I can do." A few moments later they could see a figure moving down an alley and turning a corner. None one of the videos showed the person's face.
"That's not much to go on" Arawn sighed.
"Well we could try the warehouse, since we know it's location." The videos faded again and a map of Seireitei popped up instead. There was a bright glowing dot in the middle of the screen. "That's the place to start. I sent it to your phone." Arawn frowned and looked over at Draylon.
"Let's go." was all he said as he made for the door.

Draylon watched as the man's hands flew across the keyboard, he apparently was extremely good with computers far better than he was himself. Also he was apparently completely ignoring his apology. After a few minutes of the man having gone through the system he puled up a blank screen and said the camera is dark, then mentioned it had been dark for several hours

He continued to watch them as they tried to get an image of the figure that had taken out the camera. Eventually they settled on just investigating the area in which the man had been, since they were unable to get a clear picture of him or her. The Tentacled man had sent it to the others phone. Who motioned for them to leave.

Dray walked over next to the man and said, "What about our posts?" as they headed outside.

"I doubt they'll miss us." Arawn said, but then he stopped at the door and turned back to Bryce. "Cover for us?" Rather than turn around the man's third arm lifted itself and gave a thumbs up of approval. Arawn looked at Draylon with a slight nod. He wasted no time in exiting the building. It was still dark outside. There was something to be said about the late hours when the night spilled over into morning. It didn't feel the same as a normal night. Shaking his head he looked at his phone. There was some distance to cover, but they could make it if they hurried. There was a very low chance of them finding anything there. A low chance was better than no chance. Without looking back he spoke to the shinigami accompanying him. "What a lovely night for a stroll." was all he said as he jumped onto a rooftop several feet away before jumping yet again.

The wind didn't even whistle as he skipped along the buildings toward their destination. It was eerily quiet. The events of of the dormitory had affected the everyone. Normally there would be some activity in the streets. Arawn wasn't too connected to the goings on in Seireitei. This recent incident wasn't something he could ignore. If he could help in some way he'd do whatever he could. While that was true, it was mainly his curiosity that drove him. He wanted to know who did it and why more than avenging the lives lost. Keeping an eye on his phone they came to location indicated. There were several warehouses in this area. If not for the cameras it might have taken forever to find the place. The tall building sat before him. Generic in appearance, but a well built structure. Arawn was quite familiar with the style as he had a lab house in such a warehouse. There was only two entrances. One in the front the other in the rear. He moved to the front and tested the knob. Arawn was sent flying backwards as a ball fire exploded through the door. The whole warehouse was engulfed in flame.

Dray watched as the man they Left behind signed that they would cover for them, and the man next to him nodded and left. Dray followed shortly after him, taking a look at the cold darkness outside. The warmth that he had enjoyed inside was slowly stripped away as he ran across the rooftops after the man ahead of him. Dray took his mind off it by thinking about the raging fire and the situation he was in, honestly he didn't expect to find anything at the warehouse.

He looked around as they ran across the rooftops, it was so dead outside. No one was in the streets, it was silent except for the taps of their feet against the rooftops. Draylon suddenly started getting a bit paranoid and started following the other shinigami a bit closer. Then suddenly they were there, Dray started to look around at the warehouse surroundings as he saw the man, Arawn he now remembered the man's name, heading towards the warehouse door. Dray continued to look around for anything suspicious when suddenly he saw a flash of light and felt heat flood over him as something heavy slammed into him, knocking him over.

It was Arawn! He looked in surprise at the man that had slammed into him and knocked him down, glancing at the door which was now engulfed in flames as he got up and stared at the fire, which was burning away the cold of the night which had penetrated his skin, he turned to Arawn and said,"We should report this immediately."

No response came from the other shinigami. Arawn had taking the burnt of the explosive force. Although he had survived worst things than that. A surprise hit can take alot out of someone. In this case it was pure force and a rush of flame that had sent. Such a force would kill a normal human. In Arawn's case the explosion had stunned him. He could count himself as lucky since the shock wave got him out of the way of the fire that followed. His eyes looked at Draylon, but didn't really see him. For the first few moments he didn't even know who he was. As he sat there in his daze the warehose they hoped to investigate was going up in flames. What were the odds of two fires int he same night? Very low one would think, but here it was before them another strange fire. His ringing phone brought him back to reality. The sudden sound coupled with the sharp vibration was enough to get his brain on the right track. Reaching into his shirt he removed the cell phone. He struggled to hold onto it while it shook in his hand.

After some fumbling with the button he managed to get it turned on.
"What just happened!? Are you okay?." Bryce questioned from the other side. Arawn could barely here him over the ringing in his ears. He was alert, but his body wasn't quite up to speed. He held the phone away from he ear. Bryce was being loud enough even Draylon could hear. "Some of the cameras were knocked out just now. An alarm just went off they said there's another fire! Did you guys find anything thing?" The stream of questions continued, but it took time for Arawn to process the words the other man spoke.
"Did you see anything on the camera?" he asked once there was a pause from his friend.
"Let me check." there was another pause and the clattering of keys. Arawn used this time to further clear the fog from his head. It was then he noticed that something warm and wet was on his cheek. Reaching up he felt the small cut he had suffered from the blast.
"I didn't get anything. Wait_" More clicking followed. "Two minutes before you arrived I have to figures leaving the warehouse."
"Which way?" Apparently they had just left, if they hurried they might catch them.
"Checking the cameras. Damn it, they blocked them out too." Bryce sounded annoyed that they could disable the surveillance so easily. "I'll try tracing it back further, they probably use the same way as an escape path. I got it! One came from the East the other West." Arawn tried to rise and fell over. He was almost back to form except for his balance and equilibrium. "Go on, I'll catch up." He told Draylon. People would arrive about the fire soon enough.

When Draylon looked at the other shinigami he realized he was in no condition to do anything. Suddenly Arawn's phone went off and the man fumbled around for a bit before being able to answer. I guess that means he is doing a little better than i thought, though not by much. He listened as Bryce explained that the sensors now detected another fire and multiple cameras had gone out. I am not surprised, that was a big blast, the only reason I am standing is Arawn acted like a meat shield for me. Bryce managed to get an image of 2 people leaving but not where they went, though he knew where they came from so he was going to have to go after them via that information. Arawn looked at Dray and told him to go on ahead.

Dray glanced to the west and the east, and said into arawn's phone his own phone's number and for bryce to call him if something came up or he was getting off track. He felt around the area for lingering riatsu that wasn't his or arawn's and cast Bakudo 20, "Sacred light that gives us sight, lead me to where I must go." He then cast Bakudo 26 Curving light, to conceal himself and dashed off east, attempting to follow the trail (if there was one).

While the streets remained bare there were shouts of activity coming from multiple directions. As Draylon moved eastward there were shinigami gathering in the streets and moving west toward the burning warehouse. A female shinigami shunpo'd upon a rooftop and looked about as if she sensed something and then continued on her was to the fire. Once again the quiet night had be disturbed by an explosion, but this time they were ready for it. No one wanted a repeat of the night's earlier tragedy. This time around they had assigned people with water type zanpuktos into the street patrols. It was a simple solution to such a situation, but they hadn't expected such a situation to arise so quickly. Rather than lament about it, they all sprung into action.
"Flow, Chabo!" Said the male shinigami as he arrived on the scene. The zanpukto blade shifted and bended in his hand. In seconds the weapon had changed into a powder blue whip. He wasted not time in swinging the weapon at the burning storehouse. With each swing a geyser of water struck the building. By this time Arawn had moved himself away from the blaze. He did his best to steady himself against a wall. It was still troublesome to stand. He might have wretched a muscle when he was thrown by the blast. If he could get someone from the medical squad to check it and assit Draylon with his pursuit. Arawn was tempted to tell the arriving shinigami about the figures leaving the warehouse, but there was something bothering him. The warehouse had exploded just as they approached it. They could disable the cameras that secretly watched Seireitei. It didn't make any sense. Anything he said about fire might just make him look suspicious.

The path before Draylon became clustered with more turns and side streets. As he progressed further more shinigami popped into view and vanished going the way he had just came. But not far in the distance something could be seen moving East. Something moving rather fast. It wove in and out of the side streets keeping out of the way of the occasional shinigami that appeared. The figure was wearing a dark grey cloak . The robe covered the person completely making it almost impossible to note any of their features. At best the figure's height was abit over 5ft. Anything else was hard to tell. The figured turned a corner and one could note something cradled under it's arm. It looked to be carrying something.

Dray ran across the rooftops, invisibly running towards the person he was tracking, following the riatsu trail that his kido had made so obvious. He ran by shinigami, a lot of shinigami, going to either observe the fire or try to put it out he wasn't sure, a few cast looks in his general direction, but being invisible they didnt see him and continued on towards their goal.

Suddenly Dray spotted a small cloaked figure in the distance which was avoiding the shinigami entirely, and it seemed to be carrying something. He picked up the pace and started using shunpo to get over to his target as fast as possible, while maintaining both the kido that he had cast earlier, attempting to be more quiet as he got closer to the target.

He flexed his hand in his gauntlet, prepping for engagement with the target, once he got closer he realized that the target was a lot shorter than he had suspected. I should take the package that way they either abandon a goal or information or have to face me. He continued towards his target attempting to take the package if he got close enough.

Back in the communication room

For awhile Bryce could only sit and wait for the Arawn and Draylon report in. His anxiety got the best of him and he attempted to try and help their hunt. The video system that seemed so perfect before was now all but useless before the force working against them. So far they had disabled the cameras in key locations to avoid detection. The only clue that there was some tampering was the fact of the sudden malfunction of the equipment. With that in mind Bryce worked hard to look for some sign of where the culprits might be heading or at least where they had come from.
"Fools! You think you can avoid my gaze!" he cackled as he typed away with his 3 arms. The two arms did most the work on the keys while the tentacle worked the enter key or shifted the mouse. His fingers flicked the keys as he went through command after command. Bryce turned used his laptop screen in conjunction with the other two before him. Two of the three screen was broken into 6 views as excited hacker tried to watch the multiple video feeds. The screen twin screens were divided in half with three pictures on the top and three on the bottom. The last screen on his laptop was filled with windows cascading.

From each screen his eyes darted from each little screen. Occasionally he would pause and zoom in on the picture. He was trying to trace the movement of people before the black out. The east and west paths from the warehouse he decided to start there. They couldn't have gotten all the cameras. There had to be some way to see. The surveillance system had a server he could access, but after a while it archived into another location he couldn't access. There had to be something. On the two monitors the feeds cycled through their views. At five seconds rotations over 10 minutes on each view. One of the six went black and then vanished. Another went black and then shifted back. Bryce noticed this and brought the feeds up. He had been sure to keep those cameras he knew were disabled out of the rotation. With a few buttons more he narrowed down the area the black screens were coming up. By examining those places he could figure the actual location. A moment later all the screens were black except the one on his laptop. Bryce was perplexed. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't narrow down the location at all. The number of dark cameras was too large. Since he had started using the cameras he hadn't explored all the system. As far as he knew it covered all of Seireitei.
It was a huge black spot. It covered a large area and Draylon was heading right for it. There was no way to know what was going on there, but going in alone might be dangerous. Bryce's tentacle picked up the phone and brought it to the hunchback's ear. He had to warn the young man to be careful. His hand left the keyboard long enough dial the number.

East of the warehouse

Around the corner the figure had stopped before two shinigami. The two men stood side by side barring the cloaked figure's path.
"Halt who goes there!?" Said the first man slightly taller than the figure and just as wide. His blonde hair looked almost sliver in the light from the lamp above them. The man's hand was on his blade at his waist as he eyed figure. His friend stood at least 2 feet taller and twice as wide. It looked like could easily lift strange if he tried. His face was covered in long beard that reached the middle of his broad chest. With his hair being black the beard almost blended in perfectly with his uniform. The remainder of his hair was short shaggy. In his hand held what looked like a maple staff, but in the hands of a smaller person it would be a rather thick pole, or a very narrow pillar. The figure opened it's cloak towards the two men and then both relaxed. The shorter shinigami released the handle of his zanpukto.
"I'm being followed." the figure said in a gruff voice. They parted allowing the figure to dart between them and around the next corner. The taller shinigami closed his eyes as he focused his mind. When his eyes opened he pointed towards the Draylon's direction.
"There." he barked as shorter shinigami clapped his hands together and aimed his palms in front of him.
"Bakudo #11: Dust wind" A blast of sand and air rushed at Draylon that had come around the corner. Although he had hidden himself from sight he had not sealed his reiatsu. The two shinigami couldn't see him, but the sand would cling to him and make him easier to see. "Stop, and identify yourself!" The man shouted.

Back at the warehouse

The fourth squad shinigami looked over Arawn for a final time, he had already applied some first aid treatment to the red haired man. As he stood up the other shinigami walked up 12th squad member.
"So tell us again what you're doing here?" the man asked. His face was quite grim, and he had good reason to be. This was the second fire and no answers. This time there was no casualties, but it was still unnerving. Arawn was a person of interest when one of the arriving shinigami had spotted him. The burns he had on his uniform were mighty suspicious. The man's stern gaze was bothersome, but Arawn tried his best to keep his cool. Of course this made him look even worse in the man's eyes.

Dray ran around the corner in time to see the figure dart off into the distance and get a bakudo in the face, along with a shout to identify himself. He quickly assessed the situation. I am here not on orders so i have to play this careful and casual.

Dray uncloaked himself and announced, "I am Draylon Karosu 14th seat of 12th division in pursuit of a suspicious character fleeing the site of the 2nd fire."

Dray's pocket started to buzz and keeping an eye on the two in front of him he whipped out his phone and answered the phone. He listened to bryce's hurried warning about going into a dead zone then said said semi-quietly, "Why don't you let everyone know about that suspicious warning we got, otherwise everyone's going to be getting in our way and blame us." Then dray hng up without giving bryce a chance to respond, hoping bryce would make a reason and get it out there otherwise he and Arawn would be in big trouble. The conversation had been obscure as possible, both knowing that it could probably be accessed later.

Dray slipped his phone into his pocket and said to the two shinigami who had been talking amongst themselves, "So are you going to tell me who you let slip by or move aside and let me find out?"

"Slipped by?" The smaller man said and looked around before letting his eyes rest upon Draylon. "We've not let anyone slip by." True enough the street was empty. They were the only ones in the area. The bigger man chuckled and scratched ran his fingers through his bread.
"Can't say that I've seen anyone suspicious, but you." He picked the staff up slightly and then slammed the butt into the ground. As he did so he took a step forward. "I say we toss him_" His companion held up his hand stopping the larger man from advancing. The larger man looked down at the other man, but said nothing.
"Now, now." he said slapping his hand against the other man's chest "This conversation is over. You're trespassing on private property." The larger man shrugged and grinned. Even if he didn't get to toss Draylon as he planned he was fine with kicking him out.

Back at the burning warehouse

Arawn's interrogation had just began when his phone rang. He was too busy with the shinigami to answer it.
"You see I was on my nightly constitution." Arawn began. "I often spend long days in the lab."
"Quite walk you've had from the 12th squad barracks." the man commented his eyes locked on the red haired man. "Interesting spot you've picked too." he said glancing at the burned warehouse.
"Well yes, I was lost both in thought and in direction. Seems I've wandered abit further than intended."
"Really now?" he said cooly. "The medical squad says you had some burns and smoke inhalation. Can you explain that? I mean if you were walking, why would you have such injuries?" Arawn could feel himself sweating. It was a logical question, making it quite difficult to find a logical excuse. The ringing phone would have to wait.

12th Squad communication room

After Draylon quickly hanging up Bryce attempted to call Arawn. To his dismay there was no answer. At this moment he was completely blind. He didn't know what either of them could be doing. As he sat there staring at the black screen his tentacle pet him on his head. Bryce sighed and waited. There wasn't much more he could do at this point.

Dray stopped and looked around realized that he was on private property, property belonging to one of the Four Great Noble Families. He froze in place, realizing that he had no right to be here, and if anything happened he would be at fault. I should not have given them my name and rank, ugh. Dray turned to the guards and said, "I apologize for my disrespect I did not realize my location, Excuse me." He quickly turned away and dashed off back towards where he came keeping an eye on the area behind him.

Once he knew for sure that he was out of private property and a few blocks away he found an isolated spot and dialed up bryce on his phone to update him on the situation, a situation which seemed quite grim for all of them.

By far Arawn would consider himself a patient and tolerant person, but one of the few things that irked him was repetition. It wasn't that he disliked doing the same thing over and over again, in most cases it was sometimes required when working in a lab. No, what he hated was repeating himself. At this time this is what he found himself doing. They were asking more questions of him, but they were the same questions over and over again. Of course he was suspicious. Being at a building as it explodes is as good as putting a neon sign over you head. And sure his answers were quite lame, but he had his reasons as to not expose Bryce's beloved camera network to the public. Still being imprisoned wasn't something he was willing to do for the hunchback's secret. Yet the questions continued. As he told the same answers, they asked the same question in another way. Subtle differences in the wording, but the same underlying question. They were trying to make him slip up or make a mistake and capitalize on it. There was little doubt these men thought he was the culprit. Their eyes seemed never to leave him. As Arawn answered they stared deeply into eyes as if trying to pierce his soul and find the truth behind his words. It really was quite exasperating. In the end they got nothing they could use and could only think the was not the one to do it. But of course he was still under suspicion. It was all to convenient. Those questioning him finally walked away no quite satisfied, but still knowing they couldn't do much else more.

Turning away from them Arawn sighed and shook his head. Things weren't going well at all. Finally having a moment to himself he picked up his phone and dialed Bryce. While he was talking he thought his phone was going off. No response. He groaned and looked in the directions Draylon had gone. Perhaps he should call him. Wait, did he have his number? Slapping his own face he was tempted to race after him. He looked over his shoulder at the conversing shinigami. The fire was gone, but the smoke was still rising into the air.
"What a night." the red haired shinigami said before turning to ask if he could leave. Reluctantly they agreed and Arawn took his time exiting the scene. No reason to call any more attention to himself.

Communication room

The hunchback Bryce sat slumped in chair. His eyes were locked on the screen reviewing the feed before things went black. Nothing new from the what little he got. Whatever the system was it didn't retain the information on the server for long. There had to be a harddrive or something they were copied to. If it was meant for security someone had to watching and storing the data somewhere. At the same time someone was blocking the cameras. The balding man strained his eyes trying to make out some features on the shapes that exited the warehouse. Even with the digital enhancement they were too well covered. A simple cloak and they became hidden from all prying eyes. His concentration was broken by the phone shrieking to life beside him. So deep was his focus that the ringing caused him to jump from his seat. He almost fell out of the chair, but was saved by the arm on his back. The mighty limb impressively held up the short man's weight with ease. Once he righted himself he grasped for the phone and took the call. Draylon. It would seem he was okay. There was still no word from Arawn, but he was more concerned with the other shingami's safety after chasing after the hooded figure. It would seem that he didn't catch the whoever it was and had encountered something quite disturbing.
"Not good." was all Bryce after Draylon had reported his encounter. "Not good at all." He began to pace the floor back and forth. Quite suddenly he began to sweat. "What can_" he stopped. "I mean_" again he paused. Finally he flopped back into his chair with a panicked expression. "I think you should go check on Arawn then both of you need to come back to the barracks." Made it's way out of his mouth as he rubbed his temples.

Draylon knew the situation was bad, not only had he invaded private property he had basically told the guards that he was suspicious of their master and on top of it gave his name and rank, he was kind of glad Bryce was flustered abut it so he wouldn't have to listen to him repeat how stupidly bad the encounter had gone. Eventually Bryce just asked him to find and talk to Arawn then go to the barracks then hung up.

Dray stuffed his phone into his pocket and traced his steps back towards the fire, which from a distance now looked to be to be out. As he got closer running silently across the rooftops he noticed that the fire was indeed out and Arawn was nowhere to be found, a looked around the area a little bit but he didn't see him anywhere, now worried he called back Bryce to update him about Arawn's disappearance.

East

Running along the streets Arawn held his phone to his ear. He had tried to call Bryce twice now and still no response. This night wasn't going well. Silently he cursed himself for not getting the other shinigami's phone number. It would have been nice to be able to contact him. Instead he had to rely on Bryce as a go between. Unfortunately said person was not picking up their phone. As Arawn snapped the cell closed he continued his way East. He knew it was silly to travel blindly, but he didn't have much choice. It was possible that the other shinigami had turned north or south at some points. In the end he could just be getting himself lost and wasted even more time. The thought of using the phones radar was quickly squashed when he realized it couldn't differentiate between signals. While it could find a shinigami in the area there was not way of knowing if it was Draylon. And thanks to the fire there were many more shinigami out and about. Right now Draylon was a needle in a growing haystack. Arawn groaned and kept moving. He cursed himself again, this time for his lack of spiritual sense. If he had honed the skill properly he could have tracked down his squad mate in no time. Perhaps it just wasn't meant to be. With any hope Draylon might sense his spiritual power and come to him. Of course there was no way of knowing how skilled he was at such things. Putting the thought aside he continued through the winding paths of Seireitei. It wasn't long before he hit a dead end and retraced his way back to the previous junction. Normally he would just leap and shunpo about, but after the run in with the authorities he wanted to keep a somewhat low profile. Running on rooftops would only make himself stand out and look even more suspicious. Another dead end and he had to backtrack again. He was going no where fast. Maybe it he was far enough away to hop a wall or two. He looked around, but there was only walls to either side. With a mighty leap he cleared the wall and landed on the other side.
"Well, well, well." Came a voice after he landed. Arawn spun in place to face a very large man carrying what looked to be a tree. Wait, it was a staff? It was hard for Arawn to seem him properly in the poor lighting. The man seemed to have a very long beard as well, that or his face extended down to his stomach. A very strange looking shinigami "Two visitors, such a busy night." It was like the large man was waiting for him.
"I'm sorry, I was just passing through." Arawn said quickly "I'm looking for someone."
"Well my friend, you've found someone." The man grinned.

The warehouse

"Halt!" came a shout from below Draylon just as a shinigami shunpo'd right in front of him. Another shinigami popped into existence just behind.
"Stay where you are, and keep your hands where we can see them." Said the shinigami barring his path. His companion already had his hand on his zanpukto. The dark haired man chewed on his bottom lip as he watched Draylon closely. He was more than ready to pull his weapon. "This area is off limits. Why did you cross the blockade?" The man questioned harshly he didn't look too happy. There was ash on his face and streaks of it on his clothes. The smell of smoke and burning permeated from him.