Agent M and the Truth + Aftermath

Crime Scene, 3:40 PM

"This place looks cleaner than it was earlier." Daniel noted as he entered the silver shipping create.

"We have all the photos and copies of the evidence that we could ever need." Damien explained. "So, we cleaned things up a bit."

"I can see. Did you bring the illusionist, Sabastian and a sound manipulator?" Daniel inquired.

"Yes, I have arrived." Sabastian Stallion, a tall violet haired man with a blemish free face and a lovely black suit. He had a black tie and black pants with a blue belt and a shiny silver buckle. His eyes were the colour of the leaves of forest trees. His voice was dark and his tone apathetic, as if he didn't want to be here. "I am Sabastian Stallion, famous Ascossian lawyer from Alcony Tower. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"You don't sound happy to meet me." Daniel noted.

"My apologies, for some reason I cannot inflect my tone at all, so this is what I sound like all the time." Sabastian explained.

"Very well, and who is the blonde-haired man in the corner with the silver eyes, the sunglasses embroidered with musical notes and that wonderful black pianist jacket?" Daniel inquired.

"My name is Markus Soundtrack, man." Said the man described above by Dan. His voice was like Mikey Shockmann's voice, but deeper.

"What is your ability, Mr Soundtrack?" Dan inquired.

"I see you haven't heard about me." Mark stated.

"I'm aware you're a musician." Dan stated.

"I see, well, my power is music. Yes, it's a sound manipulating ability." Mark announced.

"I see, and Damien, have you contacted king Palarock?"

"Yes, and he seemed quite interested to speak with you." Damien stated.

"Well, with an illusionist and someone who can make sound we can have his image projected like a holograph. Is the same true for his side?" Daniel asked.

"Does it need to be?" Bill inquired.

"I suppose not." Dan added. "Damien, call the king and Sabastian you will produce his image for me. Mark, you will add sound to the image."

"As you wish." Sabastian stated with a bow.

Damien called Julian's number. When he picked up, Sabastian used his ability to create Julian's image in the room. Julian's large face filed the middle of the room. His eyes were a lighter hue than his son's, his hair was darker and a bit longer than his son's. His face showed very few signs of his age. He was also wearing a shimmering royal headdress.

"I am Julian Palarock, I rule the subregion of Kyte Lake. It's a lovely kingdom. Daniel, I do hope you can make a pilgrimage one day to see this lovely place." The head spoke.

"Your majesty, I would be happy to try to make time to visit your kingdom, however I do believe that a member of your kingdom by the name of Raymond Bravery might have been involved in the assassination of your wife." Dan stated with seriousness.

"Vivian. My poor Vivian. Oh, the riches I would pay to the person who finds the one who took her from me would be beyond immense." Julian replied with teary eyes. "But, to think that the son of Agent DB could responsible is beyond outrageous. I feel like it's simply impossible that he could have done it."

"I know, believing that the son of the most trusted and best member of your royal police couldn't have possibly killed your wife and his own father is quite understandable. But you can never tell what is going on in people's minds. We can never tell why he did what he did if he did it. But all we need is some piece of proof that connects somebody to that crime, and it may help us figure out who killed Ray."

"Fine, what do you need?"

"If you don't mind taking a walk, I want you to go to where Ray lived and take a photo of all the rooms in the house."

"I do not mind. If it helps solve my wife's murder, then I am willing to do anything and everything."

The illusion zoomed out as Julian left his chambers and the image turned off.

"Sabastian, I hope your skills with illusions is good." Dan stated.

"That will be no issue, my rating is rank B." Sabastian stated. He then chuckled, but due to his tone it sounded like he was faking it.

"I might need you to zoom in." Dan stated.

"I'll do my best." Sabastian bowed.

Soon Damien's phone was buzzing. "I'm starting to get notifications, looks like the king is starting to send those images through." Damien stated.

"Tell him to notify us when he's done." Dan relayed.

"I'll tell him." Damien stated and sent through a message to the king and the king said it would be okay.

Soon the king sent through all the photos he had taken to Damien's phone. Sabastian used his power to show them as large in the room.

Daniel looked at the images and noticed something. "Sabastian, show me that third image again." Dan stated.

"As you wish." Sabastian stated and used his illusion ability to show the photo again in the room. Daniel looked at it again.

"Julian?" Dan asked.

"Yes?" Julian's voice inquired.

"That sword above the trophy case in that room with the fancy bed." Dan stated. "Who does that belong to and what is in it?"

"That was Agent DB's sons sword. It contains Japanese steel and phynéstone."

"Is there something on the edge of the sword?" Daniel inquired squinting his eyes at the photograph.

"Allow me to check." Julian stated. Dan could here the rusty case squeak open as Julian obtained the sword.

"My goodness." Julian stated in a shocked voice. "Someone added phynéstone to the edge of the sword."

"I thought I saw something like that. Tell me, who has access to the Bravery residence?" Daniel inquired.

"A lot of people. Too many to list." Julian stated.

"Thank you for your time. Would you mind telling me the identity of Agent M?" Dan inquired.

"I can't tell you that."

"Why not? It's very important that I know who it is."

"I don't know his name. The only one who did is dead."

"Thank you, and goodbye." Daniel stated. Damien hang up the phone.

"May we leave now?" Sabastian inquired. "I have lawyer things to do and I'm certain Markus has musician things to do."

Dan sat down on the now closed and locked treasure chest. "That's fine. Go ahead and leave."

Sabastian and Markus left the scene. Damien looked at Daniel's sad face and so did Bill.

"Why are you upset, Dan?" Bill inquired. "It's obvious that Martin Maverick is Agent M."

"It's true that his name starts with M and that he did come from Kyte Lake, just like Agent M. But that doesn't guarantee that he is Agent M." Daniel stated as Damien took the manifest that Daniel was using to keep track of all the items that went missing.

"Well, you win some, you lose some. Agent M may have already gotten away with it." Bill shrug.

"Daniel." Damien announced as he looked at the list.

"What is it Damien? I still need to gather my things to leave." Dan stated as he got up.

"Why is there a question mark next to this item? I've also notice that this item is written in your hand writing." Damien spoke.

"Signet ring?" Dan stated as he read what he had apparently written. "I guess I absent-mindedly wrote that down as one of the items we gathered was not on that list."

"Bill, where's this item?" Damien asked.

"Edwin is taking care of it." Bill relayed. "Why?"

"Let's go." Dan stated with excitement and rushed off.

"What the hell?" Bill relayed and quickly followed behind.

Police Mass Transit Vehicle, ID 455, Carlos Circus South lot, 4:13 PM

Daniel, Bill and Damien were huffing and puffing as they arrived at the vehicle.

Edwin hoped out of the driver's seat. "Wow, you guys look tired." Edwin noted.

"Captain Orange, I hope you haven't been guarding the treasure all by yourself." Dan announced as he caught his breath.

"No, Mr Aziz and Mr Court are helping out." Edwin announced.

"How fortuitous." Dan noted and put his hand out. Damien place the manifest into his hand, luckily he hadn't lost it. "I need this signet ring." Daniel added as he pointed to his handwriting.

"If you say so." Edwin stated and he opened the rear door where Abraham, Arbane and the treasure were all waiting. He soon found the signet ring. Edwin left the vehicle and passed it to Dan. "Who is Agent M anyway." He inquired as he glanced at the ring.

"He's the guy we've been looking for. Arbane! Who gave you this?" Daniel asked.

"Martin did as part of his haul of items he found around the circus." Arbane announced.

Daniel smiled a big smile. "Looks like we got him. Guys, I have a plan."

Sword swallower's tent, Carlos Circus, 5:00 PM

Even though it was dark and dreary inside the tent with only a bit of lamplight to guide the way. A man with light skin and muscles aplenty wearing a red shirt darkened by the lack of lighting and pants that were black but you couldn't see them due to the darkness. He was scouring his tent, knocking things over and searching ferociously.

Daniel opened the tent, shining in the light from the slowly setting sun. The man's hair was brown and messy, his emerald eyes shone as the light reflected of his chiselled face.

"Sorry sir." The man announced with a surprised tone and an Italian accent so thick that you could easily tell it was fake. "But the great Massimiliano Marchetti will not be performing today."

"Both you and I know that's your real name Martin." Dan stated.

"Oh. You must be that Dr D S Smith I've been hearing about." Martin stated in his legitimate voice, it was deeper and had no accent now. "What is it that you want? Can't you see I'm busy looking for something important?"

Daniel held up the signet ring and the light of the nearest star bounced off it and shined a beam onto Martin's nose. "Are you looking for this? Martin."

"My signet ring? How did you find it?" Martin inquired.

"I didn't. While you were presenting the treasures you found to Arbane you presented him with more than you bargained for. You gave this away by accident." Dan explained.

"Oh."

"So you must be Agent M of the Kyte Lake royal guard. I know you killed Mr Bravery here at the circus today. I know how you pulled it off too."

"Well they do say you are the best in the business." Martin stated turning around and picked up his flintlock pistol and loaded it. "Does anybody else know about this?"

"No." Dan stated.

"Good. With this curse breaker musket bullet I shall remove you from this world so I can get away with my crime." Martin hissed and fired the pistol. But the bullet got disintegrated by a golden mesh that showed up as the bullet approached Daniel's chest.

"Oh, did I mention that William gave me a gift?" Daniel asked.

"The great staff Wendlebee. You coward! Fight me like a man!" Martin stated and took out his sword.

Daniel took the staff from his back and rotated it around expertly as if he had handled the weapon for over 10 lifetimes.

Martin swung his sword and Dan blocked it perfectly with the staff, then with his right hand Daniel punched the sword, and the blade was obliterated into pieces as small as grains of sand.

Martin was aghast. "Impossible! How did you do that? That blade was made from Japanese steel, it shouldn't have shattered like that... unless."

Suddenly the image of Daniel faded revealing that the person that Martin was fighting was actually William Wilizard.

Martin looked mad. "Of course, Daniel told others." He heard a gun click.

"I certainly did. Now please comply and allow yourself to be arrested. This tent is surrounded, there is no escape for you." Daniel announced.

Martin knelt in defeat. "I never imagined it going this way." He explained. "That maniac took the life of my mentor and of our queen and I blamed him and our king for allowing such a thing to come to pass. Agent B and I tried to warn the king, queen and even Dylan to not go it alone. But on that fateful night Dylan insisted that he was enough to protect the queen, so Agent B and I rested at home. But the next morning both he and the queen were deceased. I was the one who discovered the sword had been adjusted and the blade was clean. Too clean. That sword belonged to Raymond, and I put 2 and 2 together. When I saw him today with that big smug smile after he escaped from my fury, my suspicions were confirmed. The look of horror that befall his face as I drew my sword to slay him was confirmation that he realised that I had figured it all out, and that I was going to give the queen and his father proper justice. I never discovered his motive for doing such a terrible thing, but it doesn't matter now. I thought the best thing to do was to kill him in the same way he killed our dear queen and our dear mentor. Agent B followed me to see if I was up to anything, but he never saw this coming. He had no idea that Raymond Bravery had killed his father or our queen. It was all my idea. My plan."

"Why did you spread the treasure around?" Daniel inquired.

"To create confusion so I could escape after I gave Arbane the stiff I 'found.' But I didn't realise I accidentally had given my ring away. It was the only thing that connected me back to that old life and something I knew would reveal the truth. I am not sorry for what I did. If I told the kingdom of what that man did, they would have just given him a life sentence and that was not enough justice for me."

Aftermath

Martin was sentenced to 50 years in Violet Hill penitentiary. Some if the inmates agreed with him on murdering the murder and they became his friends, but others who were mad that Ray didn't get proper justice threw some of their food at him every day.

But why did Raymond Bravery, the victim of this case kill the queen? Turns out that Ray was a contract killer, living under the roof of one of the greatest protectors of the kingdom made him appear meek and innocent, but his secret life was brought to light. He was payed over $100,000,000,000 in Rhombodian currency to kill the queen and king, but the king was too hard to get to, so he only retired with half the sum for killing the queen only. But who hired him? Unfortunately, CORE, who revealed the reason stayed mute about the person who paid for the hit.

Laurance's Circus grew in popularity and all the treasure was eventually recovered and the insurance company breathed a sigh of relief.

THE END!