The Sentinel -- August 17th: Letters to the Editor
I'm writing about a piece Mr. Bonafacio wrote about those Redpill subculture people. The ones he'd heard about were no good, but my grandma and I just met one who'd make him think different.
We live in Sobra Shores, in Westview. Nasty place, and those Legion guys don't make it any better. We were walking home from Mass the other night, when these guys jumped out of the shadows, grabbed us and told us to give them money or they'd kill my grandma. I was ready to fight these guys, but my grandma kept telling me to just give them the money, even though we didn't have much between us.
Then this girl in red with a white pimp hat came out of nowhere and started shooting at the guys, with big guns. They let us go. She yelled at us to run away, but we were too scared. She killed them, and they had to be twice her size. I got up and started to help my grandma up, but the girl was a little quicker than me. She offered to walk with us back to our apartment, so that nobody else bugged us. Grandma was a little nervous, but the girl in red told us we could trust her. Like she said, no one bugged us after that. I saw a couple Legion guys walk away from us very fast.
Something seemed odd about her, so I asked her if she was one of those Redpills. She told me she was, "more or less". Grandma got a bit mad with her, telling her she shouldn't be wasting her time on drugs and fighting, but the girl said, "There's a lot more to us than that. I assure, you, I only fight to protect others." Then she went away. I haven't seen her since, but if I could, I would bring her to meet you and have you talk to her.
Jesus-Maria Cruz
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The Sentinel -- September 1st: Possible haunting of cemetary
MARIBEAU -- Eileen Roberts, mother of Cassilda Roberts, a secretary at Metro Glass slain along with a dozen others last August by a band of Redpills who raided her workplace, reports having spotted a young man who matched a description of her late daughter's fiance, Merrill Hannaford, walking through the cemetary early this evening. "I was visiting Cassie-Rose's grave, whe I heard someone gasp behind me. I looked over and I saw Merrill standing there, several feet away, rubbing his forehead as if it were in pain. I tried to go to him, but I stumbled on a small headstone, and when I got up again, he had gone."
A cemetary caretaker reported having seen the young man as well, whose look-alike also died in the same attack that claimed the life of Cassilda Roberts. A local psychoanalist suggests these "hauntings" may be the lingering after-effects of the grieving process, if it is prolonged. But a parapsychologist claims to have seen several ghosts walking through the same graveyard. "Considering that Mr. Hannaford died suddenly and violently, his soul might well be trapped between the here and the hereafter."
The Sentinel -- September 13th: Bizarre Shootout in Club
BALDWIN HEIGHTS -- The owner of a club who wishes for himself and his establishment to remain nameless, reports that, as he was closing up for the night, he spotted a girl in her early twenties on the balcony of the downstairs area. "There's always a few stragglers, but this one was lurking around, typing something on what looked like an over-sized palmtop computer," the owner says. "I told her we were closed, she said she was on her way out." Moments later, he reports a group of "fit but slim young men wearing karate uniforms with long coats" had suddenly rushed in and attacked the girl, who proceeded to open fire on them. "I called the cops, but by the time they showed up, the girl was gone and so were the guys." No serious damage was reported, with the exception of a table and several chairs which were smashed and shot up in the melee. "I got a regular who prefers that particular spot," the owner adds. "Vic's gonna kill me if I don't have it fixed up soon."
The Sentinel -- September 30th: Mysterious death in Mara bank
"I don't understand who could have done this, and why," Remiel Stephens, manager of the Mara Five Cents Savings Bank, located just sound of the popular Polyvinyl Club, says, speaking of Sarah O'Connell, whose mangled body was found early this morning in a hallway of the small financial institution. The thirty-year old computer systems manager was working late last night, doing routine maintenance on the mainframe, when she was attacked. No motive can be deduced: the intruders left the bank vault intact, and Ms. O'Connell has no known enemies. "It looked like she'd been attacked by a large wild animal, but that's impossible, in the middle of the city," says E. D. Samuel-Baroni, the city's chief coroner.
No arrests have been made, but police are seeking two men seen in the vicinity of the bank late Saturday evening, both in their early to mid twenties, one with silver hair and a robust build, clad in a distinctive black trenchcoat with a military beret, the other with dark hair and a slender build, dressed in a green leather trenchcoat over a green suit.
The Sentinel -- October 1st: English teacher found brutally beaten to death
DANNAH HEIGHTS -- A maintenance worker at Hammerville High School reports that, as he arrived for work late last evening, he opened a classroom door to find the body of Emily Dickens, a recently hired 27 year old English teacher, beaten to death, aparantly with a desk, which was found near her body covered in blood.
The school has had a troubling history of violent incidents, including the suicide of a student whom Federal officials had approached for questioning three years ago, and a bombing last year by a local anarchist group.
October 2nd: Popular waitress attacked, slain
Gracy Heights -- "Marge was a living, breathing version of that old-fashioned friendly, flirty diner waitress you see in old movies," says Peg Bruschi, owner of Peg's, a local diner known for its hospitality in the middle of the troubled neighborhood. "Always had a kind word and a piece of apple pie for anyone who needed a pick-me-up." Yesterday morning, she arrived at work to find the body of Marjorie "Marge" Flutie, one of the diner's veteran employees, draped over a back countertop amidst a pile of broken dishes. Whoever attacked her also succeeded in driving large fragments of broken crockery into her skull, killing her. Medical examiners are perplexed at how this could have happened, but as Detective James Gardner, one of the officers who responded to the call, reports, "How this happened is a little less important than who and why."
A memorial fundraiser dinner will be held at the diner to help the family of the deceased raise funds for the funeral expenses.
October 3rd: Maintenance worker found mauled
MORRELL -- Office workers at Metacortex were stunned to find the body of Lymon Zerga, a maintenance worker, in the corner of a hallway. His attackers somehow managed to jam the forty-seven year old immigrant's arm into his chest. City CSI and medical examiners are stymied as to how this could have been done. "I have seen a thousand different things that people can do to other people, but it's medically impossible for someone to do this without cutting into the body first," reports E. D. Samuel-Baroni, the city's chief coroner. "Whoever did this is inhumanly strong."
Mr. Zerga, a recent immigrant from Costa Rica of Latino and German descent, left no family living in the area, but relatives have been notified; he was reportedly within two weeks of becoming a naturalized citizen.
October 4th: Fight, double slaying near Club Sanguine
MORIAH PROJECTS -- Neighbors in the apartment buildings close to a popular goth club report seeing a man and two females, all in their twenties engaged in what seemed to be a fight. About the same time, a man clad in a black trenchcoat and a black military-style beret was spotted walking about nearby Moriah Plaza, with his hands behind his back, talking on a headset-style cellphone. The scrimmage broke up and the man was heard laughing as he continued walking away, still talking on his cellphone.
Three hours later, the landlord of one of the buildings, who wishes to remain nameless found two bodies behind his building's dumpster. Thirty-five year old Dwayne Mellen had had his neck snapped and a fourteen year old girl was shot through the temple. The two incidents appear to be related, but detectives working the case are still investigating how and why.
The Sentinel -- October 15th: Downtown culinary expert reports data robbery
PILLSEN -- "I can't understand what sort of person has the lack of taste to steal something that has taken so long to collect," says Umberto Falerno, a culinary master whose edible masterpieces have graced the tables of restaurants all over the city. Late last night, hackers broke into a mainframe belonging to the master chef and stole a database containing hundreds of recipes. Back-up tapes containing copies of the files were also physically stolen from a fire-proof box in an office downtown belonging to Mr. Falerno. Locals report spotting two dark-haired women in their early to mid-twenties exiting the building, one clad in a red trenchcoat with her hair pulled back, the second with a shock-mane of hair and crimson eyes set in a "ghastly pale" face, clad in a revealling black gown; the pair was accompanied by a tall, robust, heavily tattooed man in his early thirties, who walked with a pronounced limp. "It looked like the woman in the gown was dragging him along on a leash of some sort," says a taxi-driver present at the scene.
Mr. Falerno adds that the hackers delivered a ransom message, telling him all copies of his files would be returned if he complied with request of theirs which he does not wish to disclose at the present.
The Sentinel -- October 20th: Possible cult-related killings leave a trail of blood and destroyed families.
CAPITOL CITY -- Reports of whole families being slaughtered and messages being written in their blood on the walls and ceilings of the victims' homes have come from several districts across the Westview and Richland areas. Some of the messages read: "Seek the algorithm." "The darkness is coming", "I will be all that remains", along with strings of seemingly random numbers and letters that were deciphered to equal the same words, spelled out in Base-32 and Base-64 code.
So far four families have been murdered. According to local authorities, there seems to be no pattern to the killings. All races, all ages, all classes and any sex seem to be targeted. Raphael and Alicia Corteo, a plumber and his wife, and their four children Matteo, age 6, Marcel, age 4 1/2, Lucia age 3 and Juan-Jesus, age 18 months, of Lucero Point were found smothered, beheaded and disembowelled. A recently married same-sex couple, Cyril and Jacen Nightwolf, ages 30 and 29 respectively, graphic artists at an advertising firm in Lamar who lived in Camon Heights were found strangled and eviscerated. Virgil and Hermionique Washington, an African-American preacher and his wife, of Manssen Park whose congregation had been forced out of the Church of the Disciples due to strange activity in the church, were discovered dismembered at their dinner table along with Hermionique's sister Jarrica and her daughter Tonisha, age 13. Richard and Anne Whitehall of Tabor Park, along with their son Connor, age 17 and daughter Samantha, age 14 were beaten to death.
Several people living near by were interviewed by the police. One mentioned they heard the laughing of a madman followed by someone shouting, "Perfect! Such beauty!" or something like that. "This is really creepy," another, a neighbor of the Corteos said, "with it being so close to Halloween and all". Said a member of Pastor Washington's congregation, "I was helping Hermionique organize a Safe Trick or Treat for the kids in the neighborhood; this just shows how unsafe things are getting, even for the grown-ups this time of year." A young neighbor of the Whitehalls, who had stumbled upon the grisly scene when he went to bring back a video game he'd borrowed from Connor, said, "It made the vampire orgy in 'The Burlyman Chronicles: Hellgate City' anime look like a kids' show."
Initially, local authorities thought the killings might be gang-related or hate crimes given the fact that some of the victims were minority familys. But the brutality of the slayings and the similar killing of the Whitehalls, "Your typical white middle-class family," as reported by James Gardner, a detective covering the slayings as well as similar incidents, belies this theory. Given reports of some strange new cult known as "the Black Algorithim" which has arisen among members of the Redpill drug subculture, the killings come almost as no surprise, considering the violence among the young people caught up by it. However, the degree of violence is unusual and initially was thought to be the work of a large wild animal of some sort, but there have been no reports of anything of that nature or any escapes from the Capitol City Zoo.
EDITED to repair a misplaced censored tag on a properly used term.
The Sentinel -- October 21st: Operatic Baritone saved during home invasion
AKASAKA: "I would not be able to continue sharing the gift of song that has been given to me if she hadn't intervened," says Rudolf Magnor, a Welsh-born German baritone, after this afternoon's premiere of "Das Licht und der Knaben" (The Light and the Knave), an operetta composed by a locally born composer. Last night, the singer and star performer of the fairy-tale light opera reports that three heavily armed men broke into his apartment and held him at gunpoint, one of them reportedly trying to force a caplet of the street drug known as "Red Pill" down his throat. The intruders would have succeeded, if a woman described as "short, about early twenties and clad entirely in black" had not kicked open the door and fired a warning shot into the ceiling with a pistol. The three men let go of Magnor and tried to attack the girl, but she quickly subdued them. However, she left before Mr. Magnor could find out her name or identity, and subsequently the singer is offering a reward for information leading to her whereabouts. "I want to properly thank her; she saved not only my life, she saved the production and my voice. I don't know which I value more," Mr. Magnor tells the Sentinel.
Break-in and rescue in surveyors' records office
UENO: Three pale men described as having "abnormally sharp, white teeth" reportedly stormed the offices of Kay, Hofka and Franzek, demanding access to the computer system and its files. A system maintenance worker who wishes to remain anonymous tells the Sentinel that a small woman in a black coat entered behind them and grabbing the office worker, pushed him into a closet and told him to stay there since "this situation is going to get really messy". He reports hearing "horrible screams and gunfire and whistling noises" that "might have been someone throwing knives", then the woman opened the closet at let him out. No trace of the intruders could be found except for four different sorts of bullets embedded in the walls of the office. Before the woman left, she requested access to a small portion of the firm's files, which the worker, in his shock and relief, unwisely let her access.
The firm is not pressing charges at this time, but will do so if further evidence is discovered. The incident may be connected to repeated requests for access to the system from a woman in Shinjuku going by the alias "Dame White".
The Sentinel -- October 30th: Westview family of four found slain
GRACY HEIGHTS -- A family of four, the Freemans, was found dead in their home three days ago, including both parents, Sabrina age 45, and Michael, age 42, along with their two female childern, ages 15 and 20. The bodies of the four were dismembered and the parts were scattered throughout the house. A single message was writen in what appeared to be blood, across the walls of one room: "He has nothing left." The family had two childern go missing, both are reported to have disappeared into the gangs of the Redpill drug-culture and died some years ago. The oldest of the two missing was named Zack and the other was a girl named Mia. The family had no other childern or relatives living in the greater Capitol City, a situation which has greatly hampered investigators. "We'd be interviewing anyone close to the deceased, to determine if anyone had any motive to harm them," says homicide detective James Gardner, who has been covering cases of a similarly violent nature and with markedly similar MOs. "The problem is, no one seems to know the Freeman family well. It's like they were ghosts haunting this house." The next door neighbor, however, said this about them, "The Freemans were always such a nice family. The kids were a little wild and imaginative but good none the less."
The Sentinel -- October 31st: Possible Cryptozoological Sighting reported in Baldwin Heights
"At first I thought it was a very wierd Halloween display, but who puts one in the middle of a city square?" says Walt Padalecki, a graphic artist employed by Network Media. On emerging from his place of employment, Mr. Padalecki reports seeing something that, "looked like a seven-foot tall woman with the head of a black dog. I thought it was a costume at first, but the thing was stooping over the body of one of those wierd, hairy guys that seem to come out of the woodwork this time of year, and she was tearing into it with these claws like knife blades." He adds, "I didn't stick around to watch what it was, and neither did the thing. It looked up as I was walking away and she let out a yowl like a scalded cat, then took a flying leap into the darkness."
Local experts hint that this might be related to similar reported sightings in Creston Heights last year. Says one, Dr. Arnaut Carolis, an Egyptologist at Barron University, "The creature sounds markedly similar to Kebechet, the Egyptian goddess of decay and the daughter of Anubis, the god of the dead and the Kemetic answer to the grim reaper. It was either a very educated prank, or perhaps there may be some truth to allegations that the gods of Kemet were inspired by actual alien beings."
The Sentinel -- November 1st: Downtown monster sighting explained
BALDWIN HEIGHTS -- Following a strange sighting of what appeared to be a woman with the head of a black dog attacking an unusually hairy man, Joe and Bill Aronsky, creators of the "Burlyman" franchise of movies, anime and video games, have admitted that the display was an actor in a costume, hired to help promote their latest video game: "The Burlyman: Hellgate Chicago". Says Bill Aronsky, "The story unfolds in a post-apocalyptic Chicago, it's sky blackened and monsters from your worst nightmares roving the streets for prey. The actor in question was portraying one of the summonable NPCs, a god-like creature called a Daevas." Local officials, however, are penalizing the creative pair for failing to properly warn them of this display. No details are currently availiable on what that penalty will entail.
