"What just happened?" I muttered to myself, looking down at the child's body.
Technically there was No such thing as zombies, at least not in this world or dimension. And I was more than ready to blame it on my lack of sleep and conclude that I was daydreaming. But neither of that would explain the body on the ground. Did it really happen? Was I really threatened by a dead child, or is this another 'System Activate' moment?
"Ezra," Lemon called, "come over here, we can't start without you."
I shook it off, walking out the room to the office of the Coroner. He brought out a computer mouse and pulled up a file showing us the faces of different past criminals and their recorded powers. He then explained that over the years he had come across multiple dead bodies with residual powers that fit the description of the powers that was used to murder the victims.
Then he pulled up a well crafted out diagram of an ability chain with different powers stemming out of the centre power which was Mind Walking.
"Although you might have heard about it a lot," he began. "Mind walking is actually a very rare power, and it usually blows up the brain of the user if he or she doesn't know how to control that power."
"What the hell," Lemon whispered sparringly.
"Yeah, and usually, to reduce the damage of their own brain, the mind walker adopts a niché in the field of mind walking."
"What does that mean?" I asked.
He exhaled. "It means, they don't use the full potential of their powers because they fear their brain would blow up, rather they adopt a part of the ability and hone it until they have mastered it. And that brings us to the mind walking power chain here."
He pointed to the holoscreen and turned it towards us. We saw words like Pain, Serotonin, Hypnosis, Rage, Lust, Psychosis and twelve other neurological related words.
"These are some of the niché the Mind Walkers adopt, we don't know if they're more but we're not closed to the idea. We believe the victims were first attacked by a Serotonin Mind Walker, probably someone they know. He probably made them happy to the point where the overproduction of serotonin ruptured some veins in their head and let the blood out."
"So our suspect is a Serotonin Mind Walker?"
He nodded.
"What about the other two?" Lemon asked.
"Indeed," the Coroner cleared his throat.
He left clicked the mouse twice and rolled the Orb at the centre pulling up another window page. The page showed a man in an oxblood jacket with a black mask, he was holding a cane.
"Halo the Reaper," Lemon and I snared at the sight of the man.
"We suspect he is the compressor of the hearts. No other abilities match the description of what did that to the hearts except his."
"Shit," Lemon grunted, standing up and pacing to and fro in the office. I could see she was worried as she started biting her fingers and rightly so too.
Halo the Reaper was a legend among the Troopers. Started out as a military man before the Yolo incident and was recruited as a Trooper after the incident. He won medals after just three years of service and was known as one of the men who helped bring peace to Yolo along with his team, which included my old partner Silas. But along the years after, something snapped in Halo that turned him into a serial killer.
He became a wanted man, being hunted down by the authorities and on a wild killing spree. No matter how they tried, the Troopers just could not catch him and those who did, always ended up dead. Rumour had it that he had the abilities of a god, but the old records showed that he could only manipulate gravity.
Half a decade and two years earlier, Halo's reign of terror stopped. It was as if he vanished from the face of the earth, but now, it seems the mad Trooper had returned.
"This case just got a whole lot complicated," I said.
"Shit, shit, shit!" Lemon exclaimed, bursting the wall open with her foot.
"That's gonna come out of your paycheck," the Coroner commented.
"What about the third person?" I asked.
"We have no identification of that person," he replied. "We just assumed that if Halo the Reaper is involved, there has to be a dealer."
I stood up, rasping softly as I stared at the man. "In this field of work, assumptions would cost you your life!"
I turned, looking at Lemon. She had her hand on her head, sitting down next to the hole in the wall she created.
"We're screwed," she said.
"We don't know if it's him," I replied. "Could be an impersonator trying to hide behind his mask or one of his worshippers."
"No one can do what they did to those hearts if they didn't have the ability to manipulate gravity, Ezra," she replied. "Halo is the only one in history with said power, the chances of this being him is very, very high."
We stared at each other for a while, then I said. "I think I'm gonna have to go berserk again."
She stood up, dusting her coat. "We should at least find the mind walker first, I'll let the Chief know about the turn of events."
"And I think I know someone who can help us track the mind walker," I replied.
We walked out the office leaving the Coroner in silence and a bursted wall. The chief went ballistic when he heard that Halo might have resurfaced.
"Be careful," he said. "Call for backup as soon as you locate his position."
Lemon exhaled after hanging up. She put her hand on the steering wheel but noticed it was shaking.
"Maybe I should drive," I said.
"Yeah, yeah," she replied. We exchanged seats and I put on my seatbelt and watched her put hers on.
"You okay?" I asked looking at her, "I know Halo is scary, but I've never seen you this spooked."
"Halo and I have, history," she replied. She looked out the window, her facial expression slowly transitioning from fear to gloominess. I instantly understood.
"He killed someone you cared about, didn't he?" I asked.
She sniffed, nodding in reply.
"I'm not spooked because I'm afraid of what he's going to do to us," she said. "I'm spooked because I'm afraid of what I'm going to do to him when we catch him."