Chapter 8: Chase

Ren got on his stomach and began crawling silently towards the crime scene, gliding like a snake through the tall grass. Years of hiding an sneaking past mutant beasts finally paid off, Ren was a veteran in stealth, although he refuses to admit that he only became this good due to his cowardice.

Ren raised his hand up to signal Olivia to stop, they were quickly approaching shorter grass, where some policemen and the crime scene were.

"what's the plan?" Olivia whispered to Ren, trying to keep her breathing steady from the crawling.

Ren thought for a while, trying to figure out what he could possibly do to get rid of the guards. Deep in thought, Ren then made eye contact with King.

Ren's eye's lit up, he immediately looked around for something, Olivia notices this and taps Ren's shoulder. "Did you figure out something?"

Ren turned his head to face her, he then got a little closer to whisper. Pointing to King on his arm, Ren explained that King can possess objects. "He can move the objects he possesses too, as long as the object allows for the movement. He can't fly around as a spoon."

Olivia thought for bit before pulling out her backpack, "Will this work?" Olivia handed Ren a medium sized plush of a cat.

"Yes but, why do you have that?" Ren took the plush from Olivia, sizing it up and feeling it's flexibility.

"I took this from Lin's house, her family were trying to get rid of anything related to Lin in their grieve." A sad look appeared on Olivia's face before a determined look replaced it.

"Alright, do your thing." Ren held onto the cat plush, looking expectantly at King.

'This... A cat...?' King looked reluctantly at the plush. King looked up and saw the expectant look from Ren and the determined look from Olivia. Sensing that there was no winning, King slumped before heading for the plush.

As king neared the plush, King's tattoo on Ren's arm became static. Olivia and Ren watched in great interest as the cat plush in Ren's arm came to life. Setting the plush down, King began taking his first steps.

King fell over in his first step, the plush legs were too soft, offering no structure for King to confidently walk with. embarrassed by this, King imbued the plush with his power, making the plush emit a faint glow.

King took the next few steps confidently, succeeding every time. King looked back proudly at Ren and Olivia, only to see smiling expressions on their face, akin to watching a babies first steps.

Angered by this, King attacked Ren, but his soft plush paws dealt no damage, despite King's reinforcements. Ren calmed down his urge to laugh before grabbing king.

"Alright King, I need you to run around with my phone on you." Ren turned to face Olivia, he then took his phone out. "Olivia, can you say "Help me!" into the phone? make it sound as realistic as possible." Olivia nodded and took the phone, she then crawled a good distance away to do the recording.

Few minutes later, the phone was "repaired" onto King, safely stuck onto him. On Ren's signal, King bolted away, playing the recording on full blast.

"HELP ME!" The guards all turned towards the source of the voice, after a quick glance at each other, 4 out of 6 guards decided to check out the voice.

"Fuck, I should've ran for it first." one guard complained to the other, leaning on a wall and pulling out cigarettes. "This has to be a new punishment, guarding a crime scene until the detectives show up? With the amount of homicides, we're lucky to get off this post next week."

"Tell me about it, I didn't pass police academy for this." The second guard said, sitting down next to the smoking guard.

*SWOOSH* *Thump* *Thump* The two guards both fell unconscious at once, knocked out by Ren, who was enhanced by King.

"Well, they probably won't wake up in a while." Ren dusted off his clothes, patting off the grass stuck on his clothes. "The body has been given back to the family, but there should be some clues still." Ren said, looking around carefully for anything related to Beelzebub.

"You said the serial killer is a big mosquito?" Olivia asked while looking around.

"Yep, at least that's what King said." Ren replied, then he noticed a small piece of skin near the outline of the body. Ren prepared himself before grabbing the piece of skin off the floor.

"Huh, this isn't skin..." Ren studied the skin coloured item in his hand, the texture felt different from human skin. "Hey, come over here and check this out." Ren called Olivia over, showing her the skin piece.

Olivia grabbed the piece, studying it for clues. As she studied the skin piece, Ren noticed something off.

"Olivia, could you put that piece near your face?" Ren asked, seemingly understood something. Olivia looked at him in confusion, but she then complied, putting the piece near her cheeks.

The piece of skin was the exact same as Olivia's face, fitting so perfectly that it almost blended in. "Olivia, put that piece on the stone. I'm pretty positive that it belongs to the murderer."

Olivia quickly took out her repair stone, placing the fake skin onto the stone. A few seconds later, purple aura covered the skin piece.

Ren and Olivia watched the piece float up with bated breaths, when it began moving towards something, Ren and Olivia began following it.

"Is it always this slow?" Ren asked, watching the slowly moving skin piece.

"I found that the further it is, the faster it gets. The opposite is true." Olivia then froze for a moment, then stayed on high alert.

Ren and Olivia slowed their pace, sneaking behind the floating skin piece, waiting for the moment Beelzebub shows themselves.

*BOOM* One of the knocked out guards dashed towards Olivia at high speed, his face peeling off in the process. As he gets closer, he reaches for the repair stone.

"Huuuuuu..." Ren jumped in between the guard and Olivia, white aura covering him as he blocks the attack. The guard jumps back after his attack failed, his face completely falling off, revealing a man sized mosquito head.

*BOOM* Ren blasted off from his position, red aura covering his fist as he punches out.

"SCREEEEEEE!!!!" Beelzebub cried out in pain, it barely dodged to save his vitals, but had to sacrifice an arm in the process. Beelzebub looked down at his detached arm, looked at Ren, then bolted towards the main street.

"HEY!" Ren and Olivia shouted, running as fast as they could after Beelzebub. Although Ren was faster that any human, he was still no match for a speed type mutant. Beelzebub quickly disappeared behind a corner.

As both Ren and Olivia turned the corner, they face a crowd of commuters, with no sign of Beelzebub among the crowd. Beelzebub has shape shifted and escaped.