Issue 1 Downtime

Once again, a murder had happened--a murder most foul. A murder that had baffled the local police, and so they had paid a call to the government, which had forwarded it to the X-Men.

Why? There was some suspicion that Black Air might be involved, thanks to some bacteria at the site which was similar to some recorded at Black Air's Dream Nails base, which was shut down by Shadowcat and Pete Wisdom sometime before.

Bear was there, putting her brains, beauty, black leather utilities, best arm in Britain, and bewitching blinkers into the big bag of business.

Graham, his bow and quiver the only personal touch to his uniform, looked out at the site in question. He was nervous about his first assignment but trying not to let it show,

Sara, with a disgruntled look on her face, is going over her scanners and scientific doodly-bobs.

Laura was hovering in the background, not sure how useful she would be, but wanting to see how these things were done.

Bear's eyes shift purple, as she joins Sara in looking for evidence around the crime scene.

The X-Van (hey, it's just up the road, what do you expect?) pulled up at the edge of the town proper, on the outskirts of a large farm.



The local constable on the scene was having lunch across the street, while a couple men in white jackets stood around a white tent in the field, scratching their heads.

Sara walks up to the people in the white jackets. "Hi, I'm Sara Stanton, we're from the University in Maldon."

"This is a crime seen, Miss Stanton, I'm afraid you're going to have to back...off..." the man said, turning and noticing the rest of the X-Team there.

Graham gave a little wave.

Bear gave a curt smile, holding back her instinct to hug.

"We've been asked to lend our expertise to the investigation. I'm Ms. Cooper, this is Mrs. Stanton, Mr. Jaeger, and Ms. Weston."

"Riiiight," he said frowning, but holding his tongue. "Well, I guess you'd better have a look."

Inside the tent was a man in his 50s. His head had apparently been bashed in, and a red substance had oozed around and was dirtying the field.

"That looks pretty straight-forward, if disgusting, to me..."

Graham stepped closer and used his heightened senses and observational skills to take in the scene. He was pretty desensitized to dead things, but less so to human ones. Still, outwardly at least, he was eerily detached about it.

Laura didn't have any sensory abilities and, in fact, looked a little green at the sight of the dead body. She recovered a bit though and decided to look at the "people" part of the equation. She started watching the body language of the investigators as well as looking for what the man had been doing out here.

Sara Stanton wrote:"That looks pretty straight-forward, if disgusting, to me..."

"We've just gotten here ourselves," the crime guy said in his own defense. "I don't know why you people were called in."

Graham Jaeger wrote:Graham stepped closer and used his heightened senses and observational skills to take in the scene. He was pretty desensitized to dead things, but less so to human ones. Still, outwardly at least, he was eerily detached about it.

Graham's hightened sense of smell would be the first thing to alert him to peculiarities here. Yes, there as the warm, coppery scent of blood--human blood smelled much the same as any other he would have encountered. There was something else too, though...a sort of herbal, savory scent of some kind. Almost earthy.

Laura Weston wrote:Laura didn't have any sensory abilities and, in fact, looked a little green at the sight of the dead body. She recovered a bit though and decided to look at the "people" part of the equation. She started watching the body language of the investigators as well as looking for what the man had been doing out here.

What the man had been doing out here, in the broad sense, seemed fairly obvious, even to those without advanced people-searching senses: the man was dressed in overalls and a sun hat, and, at the edge of a farm, was likely a farmer of some description. He didn't have any farming tools on him, however--in fact, there was no sign of a weapon whatsoever.

The two CSI guys, however, were very distrustful of the outsiders, especially the ones who either looked different (like Laura) or had weird, foreign accents (like Bear and Graham). They were most comfortable with Sara, though they recognized the X-Uniforms and were a bit wary of her, as well.

The police guy in charge across the street seemed more interested in his sandwich than the actual crime.

"Who found him?"

"I can smell a foreign substance on the body," Graham said, sniffing the air a little closer, "Our mystery bacteria perhaps?"

Laura Weston wrote:"Who found him?"

"The lady from the farmer's market was here to pick up the raspberries for today's shipment, and she found him out here alone."

Graham Jaeger wrote:"I can smell a foreign substance on the body," Graham said, sniffing the air a little closer, "Our mystery bacteria perhaps?"

It wasn't a purely bacterial scent, whatever that means to an enhanced sense of smell. It smelled more natural than that--herby, almost. Familiar, but...off.

He inhaled deeper, trying to recall where he smelled something similar. A plant maybe?

Sara kneels down and carefully scans the head wound, trying her best not to take a breath and risk throwing up in front of everybody. Gotta stay professional.

Graham's nose reached the conclusion about 30 seconds before Sara's scanner could do the same.

Definitely mixed in with the blood and bits of brain and skull in the wound was the remnants of the fruit of Solanum lycopersicum

"Tomato? That's... a bit odd to be in a wound."

"If it wasn't for the link to Black Air I'd suspect someone bashed his head in with a frozen tomato..."

And bashed it well good, at that--I don't care how frozen a tomato is, a normal person wasn't going to be using it to do this sort of damage.

"Does he... I mean, did he grow tomatoes?" Laura wondered out loud. "I'm thinking I may need to give the farm a flyover."

"Good idea. See if you can spot anything that looks like it might have been used to do this. Graham, do you think you could help with that too? The weapon might still have blood on it." Assuming he wasn't killed by anything weirder...

"Sure. But I can tell you no one normal could have done that much damage with a tomato... unless it fell from the sky."

"We'll file that scenario under 'maybe' and look for an actual weapon. And keep your senses peeled for any suspicious tomato-related things."

"Sure thing," Laura said, stepping outside the tent and lifting into the air with a buzzing noise, shooting out across the farm to get a quick idea of the layout and look for likely places to investigate further.

Graham nodded, and soon a tall, antlered satyr-like figure was dashing around the field.

Laura Weston wrote:Does he... I mean, did he grow tomatoes?" Laura wondered out loud. "I'm thinking I may need to give the farm a flyover."

"No, that's the odd thing. I mean, yes, this is the Oakington Tomato Farm, but that name's the old one--they just do raspberries and sweet cherries in the greenhouses now. They haven't grown tomatoes here for..well, for as long as I've been here."

Laura Weston wrote:"Sure thing," Laura said, stepping outside the tent and lifting into the air with a buzzing noise, shooting out across the farm to get a quick idea of the layout and look for likely places to investigate further.

The farm was dominated by the greenhouses mentioned, though there was plenty of countryside and fields along the outskirts. If someone had fled that way, maybe they would have left footprints or something, but that hadn't been apparent around the body. There didn't seem to appear to be any car tracks or anything in the area, either--so no one had escaped over the fields.

Graham Jaeger wrote:Graham nodded, and soon a tall, antlered satyr-like figure was dashing around the field.

"Cor blimey," one of the CSI officers muttered under his breath as Laura and Graham spread out in their bizarre, mutant-like fashions.

Graham's senses couldn't pick up any other people's scents in the area, though now that he knew he was smelling a tomato, he might well be able to follow a path from the general area of the greenhouses.

Narrator wrote:"Cor blimey," one of the CSI officers muttered under his breath as Laura and Graham spread out in their bizarre, mutant-like fashions.

Graham's senses couldn't pick up any other people's scents in the area, though now that he knew he was smelling a tomato, he might well be able to follow a path from the general area of the greenhouses.

And that's exactly what he tried to do.

And he could succeed!

There were eight or nine greenhouses, all ready to go, and the scents got a bit mixed and muddled in this area. The tomato scent definitely, at the very least, passed THROUGH here, though.

"I caught a scent trail. Following it now."

Graham shifted into his large wapiti form and followed the trail of the killer tomato, mindful of signs of recent movement along it.

It looked funny, a huge stag in a black jumpsuit with a bow and quiver on its back sniffing its way like a dog.

Most of the greenhouses were fairly non-interesting, and didn't have the scent.

One of them, however, had differently-tinted glass, and the scent was coming from that direction.

Assuming Laura was following Graham from above, she could see a small hole in one of the panes on the roof--not a clean round hole, but like it had broken.

Graham shifted back to human and stepped inside cautiously, paying close attention to his surroundings. His eyes tracked the slightly brighter light spilling through the hole and he headed that direction.

Or rather, he tried--but the door to the greenhouse was locked.

"I've got a broken pane on top of that greenhouse, Graham. Going to take a closer look," she said, buzzing down and hovering around the hole so she could get a view from several angles.