damned_institute | Day 58: Sun Room (Fourth Shift)

Peter's lunch meeting with Tear had gone far better than he could have even expected. It was a good thing that he wasn't the sort of person who judged by age, seeing how the girl had proved herself to be very capable despite the fact that she was only a teenager. Not that Peter would ever admit it out loud, but Tear was a lot more mature than his own niece. He could only assume that Tear's circumstances had forced that onto her, though, which was the downside to the whole thing.

Or maybe it had something to do with her being a healer. She'd probably seen a lot of horrific things in her life already, things that some other people would never experience. Then again, Claire had seen her own body mutilated, so personality might have something to do with it too.

Either way, they had a basic plan. He was going to try and look into safe areas while Tear was going to work on their alliance with Search and Rescue. He wasn't too worried about the latter, but the former might be a pipe dream. Seeing how he had no interest in playing with beads and glitter, Peter chose to remain in the Sun Room.

It didn't take him long to draft up a message with his question, and once he'd posted it up (covering a few other replies in the process, but at the end of the day the board was low on real estate) he went ahead and found himself a seat. This way he could keep a careful eye on the replies that he got.

While he had already agreed to meet with Max tonight, Peter realized that the earliest this paramedic group could get going was the following night anyway. That was something to aim for, at least. Even if it was just him and Tear taking care of things at first, that was a start.

[For Haruno Sakura.]

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Good the see the kid hadn't kept him waiting. But Gant still wasn't smiling, not even when Shou tried to give the pretense of good relations. He was just as glad to cut to the chase as the boy, so cut to it he did.

"Didn't realize you were such good friends with Baddo," Gant began, leaning forward a bit in his seat. "I hear he's the one who gave you the information on my past, hmm, mistakes."

He blinked over his glasses at the young man, daring him to deny it. "It's only fair that I return the favor. Baddo isn't one with a completely clear conscience either."

"Not really friends," Niikura corrected, taking note of the nickname. It was good to know that he wasn't the only one who had to put up with these stupid pet names all the time, although...commiserating with Badd. That was pretty...damn it, he'd walked right into that one: bad. "Just acquaintances." He shrugged. "And I can't say I didn't ask, but honestly, the way things went down, I think he'd tell just about anyone 'bout your little episode if they name-dropped ya, whether they wanted to know or not."

He didn't have any problems admitting that Badd had been his source- even more so now that it seemed like he would be getting another piece of the puzzle, so to speak, for his efforts. Dirt on Badd...okay, that was new. Or not. Probably had something to do with some girl he'd--

This was getting really old. It wasn't like the detective helped it much either, buying candy or whatever in bulk.

Moving to lace his fingers underneath his chin, Niikura leaned forward also. "That ain't news to me; the guy screams it." His smile widened mockingly. "So who'd he kill, huh?"

"Sounds like the dear old ex-detective, alright," Gant chuckled humorlessly. So Badd had simply gone and run his mouth without thinking of the consequences. Why was Gant not completely surprised by that little fact?

At least Niikura acted interested in learning more. Seemed he had his own reasons to think Badd was hiding something too. Well then, Gant wasn't going to let him down. "Oh, he didn't outright kill anyone. Not that I know of."

Gant paused a moment, tugging a bit at his bangs. ".... But I would have to say, his career as a vigilante didn't do much good protecting those innocent victims."

Niikura was about to say something about how boring that was, that he was expecting some serial killer background, but then Gant pressed on and delivered what was, he guessed, the old man's bomb.

"Really." The teen's eyebrows raised. A vigilante? Badd? Heh, he should've known! The older cop, after all, had that lone wolf attitude that resonated with his own, that idea that he could take things into his own hands. But still, his vigilante-senses (like he'd ever had those) hadn't gone off...maybe Badd had been trying to put it behind him. But for what reason?

'For what reason' was probably exactly what Gant was going to say next. "How'd ya hear about somethin' like that, huh? That kinda side job isn't exactly somethin' to be shared at the water cooler."

Heh. That had caught Showy's attention well. Now Gant just needed to make sure he spun it in a way that made Badd out into the rotten, no-good asshole he truly was. Of course, it would all be the honest truth. He wouldn't give out false information. It was like journalism. Sometimes you just had to craft a story to make it more newsworthy.

Gant himself was pretty good at setting up evidence just right to make a criminal pay for the full extent of their crimes. They didn't call Gant the Crime Computer for nothing!

"Actually, Badd supplied the answer himself." Gant smiled for the first time, as pleasantly as he could fake. "Thought this place was a fake when he first walked in. Apparently, he comes from a time after I've... paid the piper, back home..." Gant shrugged. He was alive and kicking here, so he didn't much care about sketchy what-ifs back home.

"... So! Seemed to think it wouldn't hurt to tell me anything, being that I wasn't really here in the first place." Gant rolled his eyes. Badd was such a paranoid loon. "And his reasoning made sense. As a detective, he could mess with evidence at crime scenes and, ah, work on taking down elusive criminals with what he found. Worked with a few lawyers too, to get things done. But turns out the tampering only led to the wrong people getting pointed at. And eventually murdered."

"Uh huh..." Niikura nodded as he listened. Messing with evidence to take down elusive criminals, huh? So far, Badd wasn't sounding too much like the rotten, no-good asshole that Gant was trying to make him out to be; actually, it kind of earned the detective some respect points. Working the system to get things done: now that was what the police were supposed to do! (Okay, tampering with crime scenes was illegal, but since when had he ever cared about the legality of actions taken in the name of justice?) None of this stupid, lazy shit where they just hauled in people who couldn't defend themselves or whom no one cared about just so they could say that they did their duty once in a while.

But ah, of course, there had to be sacrifices. That was why vigilantes needed to work alone. Getting other people involved just created weaknesses. It was hard not to, though. Hazama could attest to that, and so could he, what with all of his school friends.

"Ah, so he 'talked the talk', as they say," Niikura said with a laugh. That was kind of uncharacteristic, unless Badd thought he really had nothing to lose. Which, apparently, had been the way of things. Funny. "Boastin' about how ya never caught his caped avenger self, or somethin' like that? He didn't have anything to do with, y'know, your little slip back in LA, did he?"

Day 58: Sun Room (Fourth Shift)

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