The First Meeting (Part Four)

Jp with Redsword, LaserSexPanther, Jaxx, Zeeke, Lorem, LucianNepreen, Omni and Cindy

Paris
Elizabeth Ellington’s Estate
About 7 PM

Dr. Jackal nervously replied, "Yes ma'am," as he awkwardly stood up and almost dropped his notes. Once he was up he took a breath and exhailed slowly. He clear his throat as he glanced at the others around him. He was feeling nervous as it was the first time he had to present his work since his incident five years ago. He gave a slight bow as he introduced himself and began talking.

Dr. Jackal: Hello.....I am Dr. Maximillian Jackal. My research was based on unlocking man's untapped potential in evolving to the next stage. Five years ago I made a serum that I believed would allow me to make that jump to the next stage. Sadly........... calling it a failure is an understatement for those of you who know about my past. Ummm. Mr. Sung here is a copy of my notes.

Dr. Jackal then passed his notes for Lady Elizabeth to Mr. Sung so he could review and hand them to her.

Dr. Jackal: My serum has the following ingredients in it.
1/3 cup pure distilled white sugar.
2/3 cup hot distilled spring water.
1 cup cold electrolyte water.
2 oz. butterfly pea flower extract.
1 pinch (1/16 tsp) fine crushed sea salt.
1 pinch (1/16 tsp) citric acid. Can use juice of half a lime.
3 oz Jackfruit extract in liquid form
1 oz Komodo Dragon Pepper extract
1 oz fine powdered Uranium dust
1 Demon Blood Crystal

Dr. Jackal: Now some of these ingredients can be acquired with little effort but as you can see some of them are only available in remote places. Then Komodo Dragon Pepper is reportedly one of the hottest chili peppers in the world, at around 1.4 million Scoville heat units and only found in Blunham, UK. Then the Jackfruit, also known as the Jack Tree, is a species of tree in the fig, mulberry, and breadfruit family. Its origin is in the region between the Western Ghats of southern India. The Butterfly pea flower is found in South East Asia. However the rarest ingredient in the serum is the Demon Blood Crystal I managed to acquire through luck and a lot of effort and money. I doubt this can be found again so Dr. Lemaire will need to use a substitute ingredient. By altering the formula it will lead to the random results Lady Elizabeth noted earlier.

Dr. Jackal then coughed a bit while covering his mouth before he took a sip of water to clear his parched throat and then cleared his throat again.

Dr. Jackal: Going by logic Dr. Lemaire will need to acquire these ingredients in large quantity and most likely he will be using wild animals with high aggression instincts. So we will need to investigate the black markets, missing private zoos, safari expeditions that went wrong and similar places. He will also need to have a lot of test subjects so we need to check if any small towns or villages had a high death rate in a short time, black market slaves, high death rate or missing people in the slums and any missing criminals. He will try to target people who won't be missed and sell his goods under the radar so any contacts in the underworld may shed some information on his actions. Its only a matter of time before he crossed someone dangerous and spreads the word to hunt him down. If you encounter anyone who ingests the serum in front of you........(dramatic pause)...... Do not try to be a hero. Even if the monster they turn into is only half as dangerous as my other half your odds are bad. If I can get any samples I can reverse engineer what he did and give you more details.

Dr. Jackal looked tired as he looked around before he bowed slightly and replied, "Thank you." Then he sat down to drink his water.

Elizabeth nodded. "Thank you, Doctor. We have acquired samples of the serum for you. They are in the lab which is out back but the research might have to wait until sometime tomorrow." She paused to change subjects. "Any one who still needs to check in with their guild, I suggest doing that first thing in the morning. Now before I give you all your first assignments, were there any questions?"

Sasha slightly raise a hand, as to not speak out rudely. "If events do occur in which protective measures need to be taken what are the legalities of defense?" she asked. "Second question, if spotted is the concern to apprehend the Docteur or allow him to flee?"

"You, as all team members, have the legal rights to use your best discretion where protective measures are used. Try your best to not harm any civilians. As for your second question, we need to find the doctor's lab. It is possible he is holding people there and they need to be rescued. If you can follow him do so." She turned to look at the group. "Many things about the Doctor Lemaire are unknown, but we do know he is dangerous. Do not try to apprehend him yourself. The plan is to find where his lab is and then capture him, as a team. While that is still dangerous, it should greatly minimize the risk." That was the hope, anyway. "Were there any other questions?"

Vor tried to keep up with what was sounding like the dramatic plot of a novel.
There was also a bit of shock factor. He wouldn’t have imagined that he would be swept up into something like this and he quickly felt out of his depth. All the same, he had taken the ring, there was no backing out and he did have a chief concern.

“So then was the theft of the Visage a random whim or would this doctor be after other Araundan artifacts? Is there any knowledge of what he thinks they are capable of?”

"I think he was just after the Visage but I can not be sure. I do plan on doing some research tomorrow in an attempt to find out why he might have taken it. And to see if he might want to steal other artifacts." Elizabeth responded. Then waited to see if anyone had other questions.

"I see two potentials that make sense, at the very least to my following of this plot." Sasha said, "Two things, first option maybe he in his crazy mind believes the mask to hold some sort of power he could use in a manner not unlike the crystal the doctor used, maybe a story tells of some sort of dark magic in the mask and the Docteur believes that to be true, the second option, he's selling it for funding or trading it for something else he needs. Perhaps a deal for more subjects or something with actual power he can use." Sasha suggested.

Elizabeth nodded. "Those ideas do make sense. I should know more tomorrow." She replied.

"Was it a smash and grab, or was the theft planned out?" Sasha asked, she was working too to put her own clues together, and help with her tracking.

Tristin chimes in at Sasha's question, "Smash and grabs are planned out too. The question you want is it a crime of opportunity or a chance happening."

"The doctor had staged other thieves in the building as a distraction. The other thieves went after jewelry that women were wearing. One attempted to steal my broach but it was warded and he did not get away with it." It was still a little surprising that anyone tried to steal from an Eldren, given it was known they had magic. "The one that attempted to steal from me was the one Mr. Sung caught." She had heard Tristin's comment and turned to him. "Lord Andrews, which would say that one was?"