The Snake's Den

That night Max had been in a sour mood. He had been going over the files of the case for almost the entire night and he had nothing. He glanced over at the electronic clock. 4 AM. "Damn...this shouldn't be this hard." He muttered to himself.

He heard the door to the control room open and Ken walked in. Ken had brown hair and red eyes. He was wearing the same outfit as Max was. Ken handed Max a small cup of coffee and sat down next to him. "Tough night?"

Max scoffed as a response. "I don't get it Ken. How does a killer kill this efficiently. Barely any evidence other than the wounds. And this message." Max pulled the message up on the screen. It was a short passage that had been filed as poetry. Ken had yet to read it, so he read it out loud.

"Days become longer and the flowers bloom. Spring is the time of rebirth....and the rebirth must begin with death, for that is the beginning and end of all things." Ken gave a silent praise to the hand that wrote that. He was impressed.

"I have no idea why the killer is so interested with death and rebirth, or why Bernice was needed for this goal..." Max sighed and took a drink from his coffee. They sat in silence before a knock was heard on the door before another person walked in. She was a girl with long green hair and equally green eyes.

"What are you boys doing?" She slumped into a seat nearby holding the phone."

"What do you want Hawk?" She smiled as Max asked that and handed him the phone. After about 5 minutes of talking Max slammed the phone down and turned to Ken.

"Vermillion District. Two guards dead. Same MO as Bernice's killer. Gear up now!" Ken and Max ran out of the room leaving Hawk sitting there with one of the biggest grins on her face. She turned to the control monitor and started flipping some switches.

Eventually the live feed of Terminal's initiation began, and she pulled out a small bag of popcorn. She gasped when she saw footage of what some of the students were going through. "Wow. These exams are tougher than even last semester. And I thought Alex was being mean with the lightning storm..." She sipped a small drink and laughed slightly at her inner thoughts.

"I bet Nickky is getting quite the show!' She imagined the "super genius" sitting there chastising the recruits for their "slow reactions". It seemed fitting to her. That's when she saw him. Hibiki, using his powers to fly his team through the city. "Oh...interesting. I didn't think there'd be someone with my power coming in. Guess I got a new friend!" She jumped up in excitement and ran out of the room to gather some things.