Prologue 01 - The Cop, the Fox, and the Otherside

--- two months ago ---

Detective Mc Glytch was getting paranoid. Seeing an albino little girl three times on satanic crime scenes was not a coincidence.
Especially not small albinos with almost floor length hair.
She knew how much of a pain long hair was.
Then the girl winked at her and disappeared into the crowd.

The detective went inside, it was one of the old buildings, connected to steam tunnels and probably all the other buildings on the blocks around it.

Brutally massacred victims made up the crime scene.
It was nasty, it was disgusting, it made her question humanity.

She shuddered at the wrongness of it all.

Then she saw it, just a glimpse, but a small white figure moved at the end of a corridor.

She followed.

------

A broken wall led her deeper.

An old cellar, and the stench of rot.

If up there was bad, this was worse.

She walked down dusty and dirtied with god knows what steps. The stench was getting worse too. Her flashlight started to act up.

Then it died. From ahead there came a glow, she was too far to go back, so the woman removed the safety of her gun, and against every fibre of her being, walked on ahead.

The unnatural glow became brighter.

Then she heard them, the snarls, the screeches, the growls, and the noises of beasts calling out in pain.

She rushed forward, only to stop when she saw it.

A huge beast, like a dog fused with something horned, and something scaly.

It was charging at her.

She fired.

The bullets deflected in sparks.

She fired anyway at the face with teeth that were more fit for a dinosaur.

She saw her death coming.

Then a flash of white.

The beast's head screeching in death rolled past her as the body slid to a stop before her.

The albino girl flicked the gore off her fan and snapped it shut.

The shocked detective watched as the beast started to vaporize.

"You are really unlucky, that is three for three on real fiendish summoning. But the first time you managed to find one before I finished cleaning them up." The albino was holding her ID in her white hands. "Welcome to the Otherside Detective Mc Glytch! I hope you believe in a god or goddess and he or she likes you!"

"What? What was that!" The detective demanded. "Who are you? Where did the body go?" She clearly hallucinated, after all a far too large dog out of a horror movie just got beheaded, and her saviour looked like one of those foxgirls from those weird Japanese comics her niece liked to read. Clearly something in the air was giving her visions.

"Welcome to the Otherside, that was a hellhound, I am a simple shrine maiden, and the body dissolved since it is not a physical one." The albino 'something' explained calmly and handed her ID back.

It was enough to make the detective stop and debate freaking out.

"Don't go there without a mask, full oxygen and smell filters. Also tell your Station commander or whatever the highest boss you can reach is called, that you have touched the Otherside."

"What Otherside, and what do you mean?"

"That will take too long, now excuse me, I am off to find a nice calming forest glade and get some mental healing." The albino explained.

"You are going nowhere until I get an explanation!"

"Laters~" Then the albino faded away.

Detective Mc Glytch stared at the empty space. She waved her hand through the empty space, there was really nothing there.

She took a deep breath, and instantly regretted it, feeling the urge to vomit rise up again from the stench of rotting meat and who knows what else.

Maybe listening to that albino about a protective mask was a good idea.

------

Mc Glytch was not happy. There were people you did not want to meet.

Having to barge in on your Captain and explain that a suspicious person got away was not a good thing. "Captain."

"Mc Glytch, that was a mess, we will be sorting bodies for weeks, good work in finding it."

"I was led to it."

"Why isn't it in the report?" Her captain demanded.

"Otherside."

The man turned from angry red to shocked pale almost white. "Where did you hear that?"

"An albino girl told me to tell you, she also …"

"I don't want to hear it!" Her captain stopped her from speaking. "It is outside of my jurisdiction; I know that The Otherside means that it is supernatural. Did you see something? Just yes or no?"

"Yes."

The captain took the phone and demanded. "Connect me to Internal Connections, Code Purple." There was a long moment of silence. "I need someone from the special division. Code Otherside." Yet more time passed in silence. "Yes, one of my detectives has had Otherside contact, she met The White One."

"I will tell her."

"Detective Mc Glytch, I am sorry for you, but there will be someone to brief you. May God have mercy on your soul."

Mc Glytch did not feel safe at all.

What the hell had she gotten herself into?

------

"Detective Mc Glytch?"

"Yes?" The woman asked the two men in the very nice suits.

"We were called because you have mentioned the Otherside."

Mc Glytch felt her stomach sink. Upon closer inspection the suits seemed expensive.

"Please describe what happened, and who mentioned the Otherside." Taller suit ordered.

"I was inspecting the crime scene at Crimson street number 47. There in the onlookers I saw an albino girl I have seen on previous crime scenes." Both men visibly stiffened when she mentioned the albino. "At the crime scene in the basement I saw a flash of white. On a 'hunch' I followed her."

The men shared looks.

"I followed the corridors until I arrived at the broken-down wall. There I entered the main crime scene, once down the stairs and a bit further into the tunnel, my flashlight started to act up." The women frowned at the memory. "Next were things I could not write into the report."

"Please explain everything, no matter how … unrealistic or unscientific it sounds." Smaller suit asked her.

"I saw something like an oversized canine from a horror movie run at me. It ignored all bullets I shot at it."

"We have collected all the bullet fragments and casings." The taller suit said as he pulled out a magazine from his pocket and handed it to her. "Here are replacements so it does not have to be reported."

This was beyond creepy on a professional level, this went against all regulations. "May I see your badges again?"

Tall suit was from the FBI, while the smaller suit was a Homeland Security Agent.

"After my bullets did nothing and it was almost upon me, she appeared and sliced it's head off with a fan."

"It is called a tessen, it is a Japanese fan that is used for assassination normally, the ribs are actually pointed blades. It can be used to slice or bash someone, the piercing effect is only minor."

A fan as a weapon seemed weird to the weirded-out woman.

"She seemed to have animal ears and a tail."

"Something like this?" Tall suit handed her a picture of a white fox.

"Yes, only completely white."

"It is an arctic fox." Tall suit took the picture back. "Calling her a fox or kitsune is important, you don't want to see what happens when you call her a dog, cat, wolf, or any other animal."

Smaller suit shuddered, causing the taller suit to pat his back in consolation.

"Is that normal?" Mc Glytch decided she should probably clarify what she meant. "I mean the body just fading away?"

"Yes, it is, they get summoned as pure energy, only by staying a long time in our world they get real mass from feeding."

"She said it was the third time I was at a real summoning, so that half body that was found."

"Probably got eaten by some otherworldly horror." Small suit supplied helpfully.

"So, I guess that you two are from a department that takes care of such?" The woman ventured, she was rather new to being a detective, but it was either a very elaborate hoax, or she had stumbled upon things not meant to be known by the masses.

"Technically the Department of Otherworldly Crime does not exist, it is a subsection of the FBI and has ties to all agencies. Our office is nicknamed 'The X-Files'."

"Why me?" She ignored the meaning of that nickname.

"You met the White One, and your sanity is still intact." The two men chorused.

"Is she special?" The overwhelmed detective wondered.

Small suit shrugged. "Unknown, but suspicions are that she is up there when it comes to powers that are not meant to be understood."

"What else is there? Aliens?"

"They tried to invade, or influence. However, it seems that everything on the supernatural side got annoyed or curious at their attempts." Small suit explained.

Tall suit actually smirked. "It was only after they started implementing plans with the help of many important, rich, powerful, and now dead men from all over the world that the supernatural side decided to strike back."

"Area 51 is real actually, and supernatural finds are sub levels 80-100. Alien remains are in the 50 level above that."

"Are you supposed to tell me that?"

"Nobody has penetrated beyond level 20 in the last 50 years." Small suit explained.

It made sense, since even imagining 100 underground levels was almost impossible.

"The White One is important then, and the reason that she singled me out means that you single me out."

"Correct."

"What happens now?"

"You can either continue as normal, though once you start with the Otherside, it doesn't stop." Small suit explained.

"You can stay a normal detective, but expect more supernatural cases, or you can become a special agent at the FBI, and join the X-Files team."

"Can I think about it?"

"Yes, here is our card, if you think something is an X-File please call this number." Tall suit handed over a black card with a white phone number.

"Please call it now, so we can register your phone."

The woman did that.

After her day all she wanted was to go home, pet her cat, eat dinner, and take a shower. Not in that order though.

LazyFloof

A Small Sidestory
It was an idea I had a long time ago, but never managed to make interesting enough in my own mind.

Here have a look and tell me what you think. It would be without the character sheets.

Poll: What do you think?
1: More, now!
2: Make this your 2nd story.
3: Looks like a good side project.
4: A little now and then would be nice.
5: Shoo, go back to LEaE