"Well, this is a bad guy right?" the cop nodded, "well why would you give this guy a cool name? That's would just encourage him. You should give him something stupid or silly. Like... 'The Cotton Candy Man'."
"Do you know how stupid that would be? Every time we speak about him or file a report case about him we would have to call him by that nickname. Can you imagine this entire precinct yelled out, 'where the hell is The Cotton Candy Man?!'"
Percy laughed, "yeah, I guess it would be silly."
Esposito nodded, "yeah...well anyway, time to get you started."
"Wait, where's Beckett and Castle?" Percy asked, "I thought they were going to be here."
"Yeah no, they have an active case, those two are the best team we have on the force right now and so they rarely have free time to spare."
"So wait, does that mean I'm under you?"
"Well....sort off. Think of it like a big brother program, basically I'm in charge of your activities here, meaning you do what I say when I say. Got it?"
"Sir yes sir," Percy mocked saluted causing Esposito to smile.
"How did you figure out I was a soldier?"
"The hair, plus the scars and muscles. It was either a soldier or just a really traumatised dude."
This time the officer did laugh, "you're pretty funny kid, I'll give you that. Well alright funny guy, follow me."
Percy followed the man as he lead him towards the back of the precinct. In front of them was a steel door Esposito went to the digital pad on the side and punched in a code.
The door swung open and the two walked in. They entered a room with no windows and only one entrance. The steel door shut behind them as Percy looked around. There were stacks and stacks of boxes each filled in with what looked like old case files. From what Percy could see everything was in a state of disarray, the dates were mixed up, the names were mismatched. It was a mess.
"This is our archives," Esposito said as he turned on the internal ventilation system, "basically your job will be to go through each and every box in this room and arrange them properly."
"Shit," Percy cursed, "there are enough boxes in here to fill up a library!"
Esposito nodded, "yeah. Well....get to it."
"Wait, I'm guessing this is supposed to keep me busy for a few days right?" Percy asked. Esposito nodded and Percy continued, "what if I finished sooner than that?"
The cop smiled, "well that's impossible. It would take an army to sort through all of this."
"Humor me boss."
" Fine, if you manage to arrange them all sooner then I suppose I would be forced to figure some other job for you. Maybe I could introduce you to the forensics department, most of the real detective work starts there you know."
"I see.....can I hold you to that?"
"Always."
"Then I suppose you better get that little trip ready Esposito. I'll be done with this by the end of the day."
The cop laughed, "sure kid, sure. You get on that. Anyway the code to the door is 2233456, don't forget it, I don't want to keep coming here because you forgot the code."
Percy nodded as he took off his jacket putting it on a nearby chair. He cracked his knuckles and neck, "well, time to get to work."
Esposito smiled and walked out shutting the steel door behind him. He figured the kid would take at least the weekend to complete the job. So that meant the cop had three days time to figure out something for the kid.
Inside the sealed records room a small tornado was brewing. Percy had gone into super speed mode. He couldn't think in super speed, but he could move in it. That plus his advanced reading skills and large processing speed helped Percy to catalog and put away every single file, folder and box in that room.
He didn't even notice the time fly by. There wasn't any windows in the room and once Percy was focused on something nothing could distract him.
That night;
Esposito yawned as he walked towards the records room. Today had been a stressful day for the cop, but it wasn't over. He still had to check up on Percy in the records room. He unlocked the steel door and walked in. He looked around and his jaw dropped.
Everything was arranged properly, the room looked revived. No files were misplaced, no boxes out of their proper place. The latino cop turned to Percy who was currently looking through a case file with several others stacked on the desk in front of him.
"Percy!" Esposito shouted, "what the hell is going on?!"
Percy lowered the file he was reading, "ah....I was just reading up on some old cold cases, hope you didn't mind."
"No, not that! I mean this!" He pointed at the room.
"What? Did you want me to catalog them as well?" Percy asked, "because that might take some time."
"No! I mean how are you already done?! This should have taken you days! At the least the whole weekend!"
Percy shrugged, "I'm a fast worker."
"Kid, this isn't just fast, it's impossible!" Esposito went over to a random shelf and looked over the files. And sure enough every single one was arranged according to their case number, there was even a little tag in each shelf explaining what numbers they contained.
"Well I guess I'm just talented then," Percy waved his hands manipulating the Mist to a minor degree;
Mist Control, Lv-3 (60%)
The user can control the mist to create illusions.
Can be used on— Mortals
Range— 30 meters
Slowly Esposito's mind started to fog up. His thoughts began to jumble up. What was he worrying about? He wanted the job done and now it was done. He shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.
"R-right," Esposito shook his head, "right, good job Percy, this is amazing work."
"Thanks," Percy smiled, "anyway, I kind of got bored after all that and took a sneak peak into some of the cold files you guys had laying around, I hope you don't mind."
"Neah, not a problem, just don't take them out of this room," Esposito warned.
"Got it boss."
The cop nodded before smiling again, "wow, I got to say Percy this is amazing, I honestly didn't expect you to finish so soon." Percy readied his Mist Control skill, just in case he had to use it again, "hell I don't even know what I should do with you now!"
Percy smiled, guess the illusion worked after all. "Well you did mention something about a trip down to the forensics lab?"
The cop nodded, "yeah...yeah...I'll have to make a few calls, but it should be possible. Anyway, it's time for you to leave Percy, it's getting late."
"Right," Percy grabbed his jacket and closed the files he was reading up, he would pick up where he left off tomorrow.
The two men walked out of the records room as Esposito walked Percy out, "so your staying with your mom while in New York?"
Percy nodded, "yeah. I go to a school in the country, but whenever I come to NY I stay with my mom."
"Right, well I'm guessing you know your way around this city then?" they exited the building walking towards the car park across the road.
"Yeah, I was born and brought up here detective, I can handle myself," Percy chuckled.
"Good to know kid," Esposito stopped in front of a Honda civic, he unlocked it and turned to Percy, "oh and call me Espo, everyone does."
Percy nodded, "got it Espo, see you tomorrow." And with that the two went their separate ways. As soon as Percy was far enough he opened up his inventory and pulled out an orange case file he had smuggled out of the records room.
He slipped into his time ID and walked back into the now empty precinct and sat down on one of the random desks in there.
This was a folder that was tucked in the very edges of the records room. From what Percy could tell it was one of the oldest unsolved cases in this place.
30 years ago a man was found butchered in the middle of Central park. Three days after that another body showed up, this time it was a woman. Three days after that came a boy and three days after that a little girl at the age of 12.
Each murder was unique. The man was beheaded, the woman rapped and ripped limb from limb. The boy was.....was torn apart from the inside. Percy didn't even want to think about how a human could have possibly do such a thing. And the last little girl.....she died of internal bleeding. They found semen in her, but it wasn't enough to identify the killer.
Percy was seething, who ever this monster was he killed, raped and was now freely running about this city. The only piece of evidence the killer left behind was the semen and a white piece of cloth that seemed to belong to his shirt.
Percy closed the file and sighed, when he started this he just assumed his gaming powers would help him out and solve the crimes for him, but now he realised how foolish those thoughts were.
But he wasn't going to give up, he couldn't let this go. It may have been 30 years ago, but Percy knew that the criminal, this monster, was still free. And he couldn't let that stand. Not when he could possibly stop him.
The first thing Percy did was walk back into the records room. He had to break down the door, since you know, no electricity inside an ID, meaning no digital lock. Once inside Percy searched through the files, which were identical to the ones in the real world, and found the ones about the victim's personal lives and notes compiled by the cops on the case.
Percy quickly read through them all and was honestly baffled. The victims had no connections at all. None. The man was a doctor, the woman a housewife, the boy a teenage student in highschool and the girl....well she was just that, a girl.
The only reason the police even connected them all to the same killer was because of how close in time the bodies appeared and the fact that all of their left pinkie toes were cut off using a pair of, what seemed to be, garden clippers.
Percy quickly began looking through the detective's notes. From what he gathered they were onto something, something big. There were two officers, one Richard Parkins and one Robert Lamp. Lamp was the more enthusiastic of the two while Parkins just seemed like he was doing his job. And now Lamp was dead while Parkins lived.
They had one lead, an older man named Travis Deliver, but they didn't' get enough on him to make it stick. But ether way that didn't matter. If Travis was an old man back then, he was probably dead by now.
Regrettably Percy closed the files and put them away. He still kept the main one in his inventory, maybe he could look it over some other time and it could jog his memories, but for now this was one cold case Percy couldn't solve.
Percy wished he could, he wished for a way, but it wasn't to be.
Percy moved on to another case file, this time it was about a killer that killed one woman by stuffing her into a drainage pipe. Percy didn't even want to think how he had managed to do that.
Then there was one about the 'Red Tape' killer, struck in the 80's, tied a red tape around each of his victim's neck. Total know murders, 12, no leads and no evidence.
The more Percy looked through the more horrified he got. All these people dead, all of them brutalised, and their attackers were still lose. They were out there, and no one was looking for them, no one except Percy. He remembered, he wouldn't forget, he didn't allow himself to forget. Maybe this information would be useful in the days to come, maybe, just maybe, he would catch these people.
The Next Day;
Percy was lead to the basement of the 12th Precinct by Espo. He had arrived early in the morning and spent what free time he had looking over old case files. When Espo found him Percy was practically buried under a mountain of old paper pouring through each and every one of them.
Eventually Espo managed to drag Percy out and they were now heading to the forensics lab. They quickly entered it and immediately Percy was hit with the smell of chemicals, mostly embalming fluid and the like.
Standing before them was a corpse laid out on a flat operating table. It was an older man with white hair on his chest, and what else?... Oh yes, he also had his chest cavity open exposing his internal organs.
Percy figured that the sight of a dead body might disturb him, but it didn't. Gamer's mind didn't even have to activate, Percy had seen so much horrible shit that a dissected dead body didn't even phase him now.
"Your early," a woman walked out of the back room of the lab wearing white gloves stained with blood and a blue nurses uniform. She had dark skin with a curvy figure and curly black hair. Percy figured she was the medical examiner/forensic specialist.
"Hey Lanie," Espos smiled as they walked to Lanie.
"So you just going to drop him off with me for the day?"
"Well I figured you could use the extra set of hands," Espo shrugged.
"Really? Is that what this is? It isn't you handing me your problem for the day?" Percy raised an eyebrow.
"Trust me Lanie this kid is a miracle worker, he organized the entire records room in a day," Espo said in a tone of disbelief, "a day Lanie!"
The medical examiner rolled her eyes, "yeah yeah. So, this is the boy genius Kate and Castle have been raving about huh?" Lanie looked down at Percy giving him a smile, "I'm Lanie by the way, Lanie Parish."
"Percy, Percy Jackson," Percy offered his hand but then stopped looking down at Lanie's blood and gore covered gloves, "ah, on second thought maybe we should just wave."
Lanie chuckled, "nice. Anyway I hope you have a good stomach kid, because the stuff you'll see here....well let's just say it's not for the faint of heart."
Percy nodded, "it's cool. I have a pretty good stomach."
Lanie shrugged, "fine, don't say I didn't warn you. Now, what do you know about the human body?"
Percy recalled all he knew. It wasn't much, it barely warranted it's own branch in his knowledge skill set. "Not much, but I'm a very fast learner. Like give me a book and I can have it memorized."
Lanie raised an eyebrow, "okay....." she turned to Espo, "you owe me."
"I know, thanks babe!" Espo turned to Percy, "and you, behave."
"What could I possibly do?" Percy asked.
"I spoke to Kate last night, she told me how you went behind her back and basically interfered with an ongoing investigation."
"Well in my defence I didn't really go behind her back, that would mean I was her partner or something. I was just a third party individual that just happened to have the skill set to save lives," Percy gave Espo a shit eating grin.
The ex-soldier laughed, "yeah yeah kid, just don't go out and try to solve crimes on your own or something. See you tomorrow!" And with that the cop left.
"Here," Lanie said as she handed Percy a large text book that dealt with the basics of the human body, "go sit in a corner and go through this."
