Oh, what a beautiful day ...

[The Grey Merlin]

Great ... just great! What the hell else could go wrong? A partner that needed to be bitch-slapped good and hard, a department that needed to have a fire lit under it and now this.

A.T. looked down at the report in his hand. Zombies? Who would have thought that they would actually have to look into something tangible? He was tired of looking into this report of ghosts, werewolves and vampires and having to tell the ones claiming to have seen them that they were not seeing such things, that they were only things of an overactive imagination. So far, in almost five years, he hadn't seen anything other than hoaxes, dellusions, and crackpots. In all actuality, the department he worked in was nothing more than something designed to be a pacifier to the general public. But this ...

He shook his head. People dying, coming back to life of sorts and whoever they bite becomes the same ... he sat down in front of his computer. Time to see what he could find ... so Wiki here I come.

= = = = = = = = = =

He leaned back in his chair close to an hour later, his fingers rubbing over his eyes. Too much hype. Now, he'd have to determine which classification that the zombies fell under ... dead reanimated, dead controlled by another person, dead caused by virus. At least, he knew from the reports how the -disease/condition- was passed along, by a bite from one of the infected. But was the transformation instantaneous or was it incubated like rabies or both?

Too many questions and no damned answers. If they could figure out what caused it, then, they would have a place to start in getting it stopped or at least controlled. Hell, at this point, he was beginning to think it was something that was done in a lab some place as a war weapon and got loose.

He reached for the desk drawer, opening it, pulling the bottle from it and dumped two of the pills into his hand, swallowing them without water. Damned headache. He glanced over at the tracer sitting on the corner of his desk. At least Dae was still within Racoon City. He wondered what his partner was doing. He knew he wouldn't be running scared ... but he still wanted to know what he was up to, but the ass still wasn't answering his phone or his pager.

"BUTLER ... get in here!!"

He sighed heavily, looking up towards his captain's office. He was about ready to ignore the bastard, but ... he stood and walked towards the office door.

[The Blank]

Dae had .. changed, over the last few days, that was the only way to put it. The world was ending, in his opinion anyway, and he would be damned if he ended right along with it. He has been a survivor his whole life, and he damn well plans to -keep- it that way!

So, no, there had not been much seen or heard about him at the Bureau, and yet, his Boss, the bastard that he was, had okayed it .. didn't have much choice. When you were sittin on the kind of black files that Dae had in his possession, the term blackmail was a lighthearted joke compared to what Dae could -really- do. He had the power, at the moment, to split Raccoon City -wide open-, and he was tempted to do just that if any one stood in his way. Though it seemed, there was one Agent he had failed to find any dirty on .. that eejit partner of his! The little prat had the cleanest nose he'd ever seen, as if dirt wouldn't cling to his immaculate self. And oh, but that did piss Dae off a million ways to Sunday! The prat seemed almost -inhuman- in the fact that he never got in trouble .. not once that Dae could find. Oh, the anger of that! Reminded him too much of another certain eejit that he had yet to speak to again. Even with the world ending, he'd be damned if he picked up the phone and called him .. be DAMNED!

But then, maybe he was already damned, maybe the entire world was. His entire time in the Bureau, he had never been forced to discharge his firearm .. in the span of three days, he had been forced to kill five people that swarmed him, like a gang or something, and tried to tear him limb from limb. Bossman had insisted that he take some Psych time .. it had been at that moment that Dae revealed a small sliver of the land mine he was currently sitting on and told the Bossman just where he could shove the Psych .. it had earned him a right cross .. and he promptly returned the favor to Bossman. So, why wasn't he out on his arse, after a display like that?? Simple .. black files.

He looks down at the clipboard in his hands, scowling faintly. He keeps telling himself that he's a survivor .. that in the end, that's all that matters .. he will survive. Then why the hell did he feel liek some disgusting ratfink for the fact that he was not out helping the City try to survive? Why did he feel like a scumbag for trying to look out for himself!? He turns his head, spitting across the sidewalk, frowning at the color of sputum as it crashes against the concrete. He turns and stares ahead for a moment, yanking the front door open once his badge had been verified. He looked .. different, to say the least.

Gone was the neatly pressed suit with slackened tie and shiny black shoes .. in it's place, a mock military style long sleeve shirt, dark blue and pinstriped, a pair of tight, easy to move in black slacks, and combat boots. His hair .. well, it now had long, thick braids in it, the hair pulled up and secured atop his head, flowing back down his neck and across his shoulders, streaked red in places. He shoves one hand in to his pocket and enters the 'bullpen' where he shares space with Butler, seeing him sitting there, tense. He is in just enough time to hear the Bossman screaming for the other Agent, and he snorts softly.

However, before Butler can stand, he would find a gentle hand pressing lightly into his shoulder, Dae standing behind him. When Butler looked around, the shorter man would be standing close enough they would almost collide. And yes, the tracer would say that his SUV was still parked all the way across town. He smiles sweetly to his partner, never a good sign.

"You're lucky I'm not the tattling type, Butler. It's a federal crime to lo-jack a Federal vehicle .. even if you're another Federal agent. Though gotta say .. you've go balls for doing it, babe. Any one else would've had something dislocated by now."

He slides his hand off the other man's shoulder and steps around the desk. He produces a key and opens the bottom drawer of his desk, pulling out his PDA. He smirks to himself as he looks something up on it, and then grins at his Partner.

"If you don't mind, think I'll join you in Bossman's office."

[The Grey Merlin]

He felt the hand on his shoulder and since it didn't feel -threatening-, he didn't pull his piece ... though with all that had been going on lately, he was jumpy as hell. He turned his head, looking up at Dae. He glanced at the black box on the corner of his desk, thinking to have a long talk to the idjit in inventory, unless his partner had found the sorry link.

"Might be ... if I didn't have -written- permission to keep an eye on you ..."

His hand reached for the desk drawer, opening it, pulling out the locked box that he kept there during the day and would go home with him at night. Seemed like Dae wasn't the only one who kept things. He pulled the key from his pocket, opened it and pulled out a piece of paper, showing that the Boss had signed off on the request, holding it out to him.

"Add it to yours, if you like ... I have the original put away."

He grined slightly, nodding when Dae said something about joining him in the Bossman's office.

"No, don't mind at all ... glad to see you back in one piece though."

Now that was something that Dae might never have expected to hear coming from Butler, but, it was the honest truth. The two of them didn't see eye-to-eye on a lot of things, but then, Butler had tried to understand what the other man was going through and had been a lot more tolerant than most others on the Bureau would have been. Hell, his -clean- record had been the major factor of partnering them, the Bossman thinking it would have a calming effect on Dae, but Butler had refused to push that aspect, thinking that if they couldn't be friends, at least they could get along since they seemed to be on the same side.