My eyes were glued to the screen as I rewound the clip for what might've been the 10th time.
It was the same as usual; an armored van and 6 cars worth of armed escorts, 3 on both the van's sides. The streets were already cleared by the police a few hours prior but there were two policemen on bikes leading them on, just in case, or maybe it was just for show.
The chief liked to pretend that he gave a shit. Maybe he really did, but I'm sure you know that caring just isn't enough. It was probably for a bank, I never really checked.
There were no survivors.
The guards were killed by some sort of cutting implement, most of their wounds remained somewhat consistent; clean cuts in the gaps between body armor coming from multiple angles. Legs, arms, chest, neck, wrist. Anything vital or at the very least, functionally threatening.
There were suggestions multiple assailants, though the the recordings don't quite match with that. There was friendly fire, so it'd be safe to assume that the assailant broke into formation to reduce the chances being shot.
Before the guards were killed, they described the attacker as "something black". Vaguely humanoid in shape, but kept darting around so they couldn't mention anything conrete. They kept loosing sight of it, judging by the repeated shouts of "where is it!?". They didn't say anything about there being more than one, and there were conflicting reports on its approximate location.
The armored van was later found on the 3rd floor of a nearby car park just a couple of streets south of the route, completely emptied. The driver was shot in the head, and left dead on the floor. If the files were right then this was just an aromored convoy for a bank, but there could've been something else inside. Everything just seemed...so excessive.
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It didn't look professional, that's for sure. Too many holes. If there were more of those things, then why not kill the guards first? Why prioritize the van? Why did it come back after what seemed to be the perfect getaway? Did it even need an extra team waiting on another building? As effective as it was, it just seemed... sloppy.
Come to think of it, there could've been something like this a few months back. I should go look at the files.
Ah, yep. Here we are; a few gang fights with rather similar wounds. Guns, bruises, and cracked skulls. Typical stuff, only with a bit of those clean cuts added in as an extra.
Mentions of some ghost, broken videos and so on. There were some rumors popping up here and there but they weren't really backed up with anything concrete back then, so they were promptly ignored. Made up stories by kids with nothing better to do.
And who has to deal with the aftermath? Me. I should get a better job...
I'll make a memo of that, moving on;
Let's see... A spike in gang activity in the last 2 months, multiple skirmishes in different areas.
That. Does not bode well.
Hm. I don't know what I should feel about that.
And then there's last night...
From what I've seen, Ghosts abilities seem to be stealth oriented:
-Teleportation with unknown limitations, likely to have less than 200 meters in range, judging by the distance between the scene and the location of the car park. Able to move large objects along with its contents. Might be able to warp repeatedly within short spaces.
-An ability to distort visual information, judging by the pixelated mess I have to work with, along with repeated witness sightings that tell of "something black" without any further details.
-Some skill with edged weapons of some sort. Cuts were consistently clean, aimed to destabilize before going for the killing blow. There's not much footage with any discernable details so I can't say much.
Welp, for now, I'll just assume the perpetrators behind the incident to be the Outsiders. The pecularities in the clip's operation seemed to suggest a certain level of desperation and clumsiness which would remain consistent with the chain of events.
Since their first appearance didn't have any mentions of that Ghost, it's safe to assume that they're a recent addition to their team, so they're most likely to be unfamiliar with the extent of its abilities, and are thus, unable to fully utilize them.
With that out of the way, the Outsiders are likely laying low, or barring that, making good use of their newly acquired funds. Whether or not they stay in the city remains to be found. But still, I'd have to take a look in the underground for any job openings; people these days have a strange tendency to not quit while they're ahead.
Though if I'm lucky, I won't have to do anything. And if I'm really lucky, I won't even have to do any paperwork.