lepidope

Light of The Rebellion

Matias took a look at Dante himself, biting his lip. He had anticipated grave injuries, but not that grave. He couldn't even really tell if the man was breathing or not.

"Are you sure you can fix him up by yourself? That sounds like way too much. Surely there's something we can do?"

Light of The Rebellion

Matias let out a soft "huh?" in response.

"What's that guy gonna do?" he asked in a confused, borderline condescending voice. He waited for an answer before turning to Bane. He, again, waited for an answer. He thought Bane was just thinking, but then he realized that he had pretty much ended the conversation there. Looking dissatisfied, he motioned one hand for Bane to "continue".

"Well? What's going on with him?"

Light of The Rebellion

Matias could only shrug.

"Not really... Let me see something."

His phone found itself in his palm again, its face mercilessly smashed upon as Matias did his research. He had to look back at the paper a few times to get the whole search query down. What followed it made his eyes unable to blink.

"... Polka-dot wasp moth."

His face quickly contorted to one of deep exacerbation as he slammed his phone an top of the end table.

"Fucking knew it. But how the hell are there no records on that thing?! Not even a name?!"

He sighed deeply.

"Well, now it's confirmed. But that's all we can do with this."

He looked back at the medical crew behind him.

"You guys need anything?"

Light of The Rebellion

Matias raised one hand and looked back for a moment.

"Hold on," he said, "I'm still looking it over."

The two reports were chock-full of information but practically identical outside of the extremely small and granulated images of the notes on the top left corner of their respective sheets. It had everything; lead type, carbon dating, even an estimate of the author's dominant hand. As for anything potentially identifiable, however...

"Name, unknown, sex, unknown, height, unknown... What am I supposed to do wi–?"

A certain field caught his eye.

"POTENTIAL RACE LINK: MYSTIC. HAIR SAMPLE LINKS TO VARIATION OF SYNTOMEIDA EPILAIS WITH HUMANOID PROPERTIES."

Matias could hardly pronounce the augmented Latin. He tried once and didn't attempt it again.

"... An alien I guess?"

Light of The Rebellion

Matias's head hung up high, and the words "Oh thank god" hissed out of his mouth in a hushed whisper.

"He's been unconscious since I found him," he replied, tearing at the folder's seal perforation. "We're suspecting that he got ganged up on by a bunch of cops, but we're not totally sure."

Sitting about five feet away from him was a small end table which he eagerly used to lay out the folder's contents. The original notes were sealed away in labeled plastic, while the lab reports seemed free for the taking. The font was small and blocky, but at least it was legible.

"I told Midnight that we should make this our temporary base," he said, "because I'm worried about others getting injured from far away. We need everyone together at once, no more splitting up until absolutely necessary."

Light of The Rebellion

Matias's eyes widened considerably.

"Oh, what?"

His eyes shifted back and forth between Dante and the folder, still widened. He let out a sigh before hanging and shaking his head.

"Damn... He actually did them. I suppose something good came out of all this."

His hand reached for the folder but stopped upon hearing Midnight speak. He simply side eyed her for a moment before actually taking the coveted notes in his hands. He looked neutral albeit grumpy as per usual, but deep down there was something in him squeeing like a child.

"I suppose we should look these over while we wait. Now, usually I wouldn't take something that isn't mine, but these are teeeechnically mine..."

Light of The Rebellion

"I wouldn't count on that," Matias said, "We still have to be careful. Everyone in this room has some sort of bounty on their head."

His eyes met the folder on the nightstand, then his bountied head motioned towards it.

"Any idea what that is?"

Light of The Rebellion

"Mmph."

He looked back at Scarlet, his frown deepening.

"You don't know if they followed you, do you? Because that also might be a problem..."

He stepped back to give everyone some room, then folded his arms.

"Again, I'm no medic. I suppose I could go downstairs and patch up that window. You got anything I could fix it with?"

Light of The Rebellion

Matias looked over at Dante again. He stared silently for a moment before cracking a grin and chuckling.

"Guess he decided to leave the masochism behind him... Vale."

He gave the vampire a soft rub in the shoulder.

"Considering how the pigs treated him when he was in the department, I wouldn't be surprised if they decided to go all out now that he's not. That's my guess."

He turned to Midnight.

"Should we stay here until further notice? I feel like it's too dangerous for us to spread out at this point. Too many people wanting us dead."

Light of The Rebellion

Matias was laying Dante on another bed when Midnight appeared. He looked back, flicking blood off his hands.

"Can't say," he replied, "I walked in and they were just laying there... I saw a broken window, so they might have. Can't think of another way that they could have gotten in."

His eyes met the folder again. He took it in his own hands and examined it briefly before placing it on a nearby nightstand. Now his interest shifted to Scarlet.

"Iris should be on her way," he sighed, "but you'll have to hang tight. What happened? Who attacked you?"