Chapter 2: Investigations

Commissioner Henry was a simple man, he enjoyed the simple things of life and that exact reason was why he joined the police force in order to keep life simple. Unfortunately for him, he picked the wrong city to work in. Almost every morning he received a call about one thing or another that those damned Super Villains destroyed during the night. Today started like every other, his cell phone waking him up in his lovely suburb home exactly an hour away from the hustle and bustle of the city, a home he paid an arm and a leg for, almost losing it to his ex-wife in the divorce and almost having it destroyed by a particular super villain that seemed to have it in for him.

Picking up the cell phone, rubbing his tired eyes he groggily asked into the device, "What happened now?" The voice on the other line he recognized belonged to Detective Karn, one of his more unusual detectives on the force. "Sir, there seemed to be a bit of a issue that occurred at the city bank last night, apparently multiple officers came to the scene and went in only to never come out." Henry sighed thinking of all men and women that probably had died, looking over at his alarm clock he noticed that this call happened a bit earlier than the usual ones. Sighing again he said to Karn, "Karn when did the Bank alarms go off?" the reply was instant as if Karn had this whole conversation and its flow memorized from the sheer amount of times he had called the commissioner at his home. "Around an hour ago. According to the data from the security company."

Henry yawned, and said, "Okay, I'm coming up to check it out. Set up a perimeter if you already have not, try to find the officers that went in, and again do not engage the super villains." With that Henry closed his cell phone and slumped back onto the bed. He mumbled to himself, "God damn super villains. The heroes are just as bad, from time to time. Why did I take this job?" Rubbing his eyes, he got up and walked into his bathroom. Looking at himself, he could tell that the stress of his job was finally getting to him, gray hairs were already littering his once curly brown hair.

After he finished his usual morning routine Henry, walked out of his property, got to his car, realized he forgot his badge, and went back in to fetch it. "Always something," he muttered to himself as he walked back to his sleek black car, "There is always something."

An hour later he arrived at what used to be the City Bank. The sun was slowly rising, and the building was still very dark, but he could tell that it was very much torn up. Walking up towards the building he found Karn running up to him with a large cup of coffee. "Here you go Henry." He said, handing him the large warm drink. Henry sipped the cup of coffee and looked up at Karn. Karn was a bit taller than Henry himself, sported short black hair, and appeared older than his age. Although ironically he acted a bit more immature than most his age, apart from that he was also full of energy and he had high enthusiasm for just about anything. He was a good man. Henry smiled at Karn and said, "You're working with me on this one." Karn smiled wide and said, "Thank you sir! I'll do my best!" With that the two men walked up into the remains of the bank.

Looking around what used to be the main teller office Henry asked, "You find any of the officers?" Karn nodded and said, "Most of them, some of them still alive, according to them they had a female suspect cornered and captive, they were taking her outside when another suspect came down through the roof. Through all the confusion the female got away, but the funny thing is the other suspect, who is highly suspected to be The Plaid Whip, started to attack the first suspect, and the police." Henry sighed and glanced upward at the large hole that apparently Plaid Whip made himself.

"What did the woman do?" he asked noticing the small circular hole in the safe. "She went absolutely berserk. She started to tear the place apart it seems with an unknown force." Henry walked over and inspected some large claw marks on the walls. "We got anything on this woman suspect?" He asked feeling the marks with his fingers. "No sir, nothing at all, she must be new." Henry turned and asked Karn, "Who do you think made these?" gesturing to the claw marks.

Karn walked up to them and said, "Plaid Whip maybe? I know that he can change his whip into anything. Maybe he made it into a clawed weapon on the fly?" Henry nodded in agreement,"Possibly, can't rule that out. Any heroes get involved?" Karn shook his head, "Not to my knowledge. No." Henry took another sip of coffee and muttered,"That is what is strange about this. You would think someone like Robe Man or The Disheveled Creeper would jump in at this." Henry started to head toward the safe, he asked, "Money all gone?" "No sir. All of it was left. Seemed to not be on the mind of anyone at the time."

Henry peered into the hole in the safe and saw that the money was still all in there. "So what he have here, is a unknown female suspect trying to steal money from the bank, she trips up and sets off the alarm. Cops come in, catch her, but the attention catches the eye of a super villain who is not all that friendly towards his comrades. He attacks everyone in the building destroying most of it. The woman also attacks everyone in the building, and then more cops come and they flee?" Henry shook his head, "That sounds fishy to me. Villains can easily handle us, why would they leave the money? Someone else must have come along to make them run. But who?"

Henry turned to Karn and said, "Check the building. There might be answers to the entrance of another Villain." Karn shook his head and said, "Already did that sir. No evidence can support that." Henry smirked at Karn and asked, "How did the woman escape?" Karn blinked and said, "I don't know." Henry then asked,"Well we can assume she escaped the way she got in. How did she get in?"

Karn coughed a little and said, "That we don't know either." Henry sighed and said, "Karn one thing you need to learn is to look everywhere when dealing with these villains. Did you check the bathroom?" Karn shook his head but then smiled and walked off toward the bathroom.

Henry smiled as he watched the detective go off to investigate the lavatory, but then something tapped him on the shoulder. Jumping a little in fright he turned around and saw someone very peculiar. "Oh, I was wondering when you would arrive." He said his eyes forming a slight glare at the sight of one of the cities heroes.

Henry was not fond of this particular hero. He seemed to do what he wanted and cared not what he did. He caused a lot of needless damage to city hall when the Plaid Whip tried to assassinate the mayor, to the time he purposely burnt down an orphanage that was being held hostage by Quiz Boy, his reasoning was that if the orphanage was being held hostage he should just burn it.

Henry glared at every inch of the man, from the length of his dark blue robe, that served as the figure point of his costume, to his normal clothes underneath, his fingerless gloves, his grappling hook strapped to his back, to his mask which hid his identity. Robe Man was not what you call a solution to a problem, more like a problem to a problem. "You know I could easily have you arrested." Henry said watching the hero run his fingers through his messy brown hair. "For what you did at the orphanage. You should be behind bars." Robe Man smirked again and said, "Cut the crap Henry, you know I would just evade capture like these Villains here. Now do you want me to help you figure it out or not?"

Henry already knew Robe Man had an idea what happened here and it was to early in the morning to play his games. "Why don't you enlighten me on what occurred here tonight?" Henry said, eying him carefully. Robe Man yawned and his hazel eyes quickly scanned the room. "Seems to me, that you had a burglary gone wrong. Burglar made a mistake tripped the alarm, got in a tussle with the cops, 'ol Whip shows up pissed that someone is taking his spotlight, tries to kill the burglar along with the cops. But Whip is taken by surprise by the Burglar who was more formidable than he suspected. So these two supers, fighting themselves and the cops. Don't suspect a thing when a large salamander comes out of the floor."

Henry scoffed and said, "There are no large holes in the floor. Look around you." Robe Man blinked and said, "Oh, you are right. I must be wrong. But who made those?" He asked pointing at the large claw marks on the walls. "Those are not from the Plaid Whip. Trust me. I know what the Whip is capable of. Are you sure you checked everywhere for entrances for another villain?" From another room Karn's voice rang through out the Bank. "Commissioner Henry! Come quick! I found something!"

Robe Man smirked again at Henry and said, "You best go see your boy, Henry. Before he gets in too deep." Henry who was looking over in Karn's direction turned back to Robe Man but found no one there. "God damn it. I hate it when he does that."

Moving over to the bathroom of the bank, Henry found Karn staring into the bathroom. "What did you find Karn? Somebody not flush?" He joked chuckling to himself. Karn just pointed into the bathroom and Henry peeked in. There was no bathroom. It seemed it was torn out by some huge creature from underneath and pulled under into the sewer system. Gazing into the sewers Henry sighed and thought to himself, "How does he always know?" He tried to fight the image of Robe Man's smirking face that he was probably making right now. He turned to Karn and said, "Well looks like we have to rule a few things out in our hypothesis."

~To Be Continued~