Chapter 1
The Case of the Black Streak Murders

It was a stormy night simulation in District 87, otherwise known as the PTA District. Most people know better than to walk around outside their districts at night, especially when it rains… bad things always tend to happen in the rain. In this case one of those apes decided to visit his girlfriend near the center of the district, so he figured he was safe enough with his own kind. He was wrong.
My partner and I arrived on the scene around an hour after the rain stopped, as that was when the murder was reported. Before I go on, I should explain what we do here. My name is Detective Blue and my partner is Detective Green and we work for the IDA or the Instatopia Detective Agency. We are charged with solving the cases that aren’t immediately handled by droids and the local authority within the many districts of Instatopia.
Instatopia itself was created by Leader 10, the head scientist of the Heaven Force, a group in charge of defending Louis’s Creation . It was meant to be an instant Utopia, hence the name Instatopia. It is still argued that it’s still a success rather than the failed ideal most critics claim. It was peaceful enough as each district was especially designed for each race, creed, or manner of creature that Creation could fit and are heavily guarded to reduce the amount of hate crimes or “unauthorized influence” from visitors with advanced tech or radically different ethical codes that could cause a disturbance.
When we arrived at the scene, I noticed that the report said the victim was Alikbar Sid-er, a local fish merchant with a large mortgage and only a few credits to his name. He appeared to have been stabbed in the back as indicated by the 2-inch incision in his upper spine. It appeared to have been about 30 minutes old as the blood was still fresh.
“So, looks as though we’re looking at another back stabber, eh Blue?” Detective Green asked as he leaned next to me and analyzed the scene. There have been a recent streak of backstab victims all over Instatopia, and all of them had the same signs almost to the letter. The only thing that was different between them was who was stabbed. Last week, for example, there was a store clerk in District 14 who was in the middle of taking out his trash and the month before there was a teenager girl from District 33 who was found lying dead on a tree with her head on her sketch pad. The picture she was making was soaked by her blood so no one knows what it was.
“Indeed it does appear that way…” I said looking over the dead ape trying not to offend the locals by gagging to the smell of wet fur. “…And once again there is nothing we can use.” I stated with frustration as this was yet another dead end (no pun intended).
“Well at least we’re getting a good lay of the land. We only got here from District 5 in less than 10 minutes.” Detective Green said trying to comfort me. Not that I needed it.
“For a moment there I thought you were going to say parsecs.” I chuckled before once again looking at the body.
“I thought of it but I’m certain we got here sooner than that. What is a parsec anyway?” Detective Green asked, his mind clearly no longer on the crime scene.
“It doesn’t matter now… there isn’t even a foreign trace in the wound. There’s always something like a microscopic fragment or a small piece of DNA, but there’s absolutely nothing here.” I stated as I rose up on my feet.
“Well the local authorities are still trying neighbors for witnesses. Maybe…” Detective Green started before I gave him a glair through my black tinted glasses.

“There’s never any witnesses. If the killer was so sloppy then cameras would have caught him, and we wouldn’t be here dealing with this crud.” I said looking for the nearest camera. “Wait a minute…”
“What is it Blue?” Detective Green asked as he tried to follow my vision. I looked all around and noticed that there were no visible cameras and immediately reached for my communicator.
“Information.” A voice said as the Heaven Force logo appeared in the center of my communicator.
“Look up camera placements in District 87.” I ordered as I entered in my authorization codes.
“Searching… There are no authorized cameras in District 87 scheduled for installment until orders are issued by the Council.” The computer stated, displacing a map of District 87 with a big X to prove its point.
“Figured as much…” I said as I remembered that this was a designated level 2 tech zone (areas where only medieval type technology can be bought, sold, or used). They also had a tendency to be more likely to house murderers and other miscreants.
“Hey computer, what is a parsec?” Detective Green asked before I could put the communicator away.
“A parsec is a unit of astronomical measurement first coined dominantly in 1913 by Herbert Hall Turner which is commonly used to estimate the distance between a sun and an astronomical object which has a parallax angle of one arcsecond or 1/3,600 of a degree. It is equal to approximately 30.9 trillion kilometers or 3.26 light-years.” The computer said as it began displaying a variety of graphs and numbers.
“Geez, sorry I asked…” Detective Green stated as we began making our way to our Detective-Class Cruiser.
“Wait! This woman says that she saw something when the victim was attacked.” A 7 foot ape-guard outfitted with spike shoulders and a baton stated as he gestured to a woman over by what looked like her father who was trying to comfort her.

“What do you say now ye of little faith?” Detective Green joked as we made our way to the witness.
“Let’s see what the witness has to say before we start throwing jokes, huh?” I said as we approached the crying ape-ette. “So what can you tell us of the murder here, Miss…?”
“Patricia Ook, Detectives…?” Patricia said as she removed her hood to reveal her furry face. She had a light red fur coloring around her face and deep blue eyes.
“Detectives Blue and Green, Miss…Ook. So what can you tell us?” I asked after we both showed our authorization and put them back into our coat pockets.
“Well it all happened so fast I… sorry, I was just looking for my quill so I can resume writing a book I’m working on.” Patricia started.
“Do you have the proper papers for that?” I asked as Instatopia would be the perfect breeding ground for a new dimension, as it takes only a few followers for a new idea to become stable enough for it to be properly registered in the immigration registry.
“Of course, would you like me to go get them real quick?” Patricia asked as she motioned to her flat on the other side of the street.
“No thanks, we just want to know what you saw a few moments ago today.” Detective Green stated as he started recording Patricia’s statement by pressing the record button on his watch.
“Well as I said: I was looking for my quill when I saw that man walking by himself in the rain. I was about to resume my search when I saw a dark streak overtake him, and before I knew it… he was dead.” Patricia said as she began to sob.
“A dark streak… Hey Blue that sounds like…”
“I know… we finally have a valid witness.” I said with a smirk, since this was the first break we’ve had in a long time.
“But I didn’t see anything else… it was like a flash of black lightning.” Patricia stated as she cleared away her tears with a piece of brown cloth.
“It doesn’t matter, we have devices that can look into your memories and enhance them till we get something we can use. If you don’t mind Miss Ook?” I said, barely remembering that I had to ask for permission in these types of situations.
“Well… I suppose. Anything to help detectives and please… call me Patricia.” She responded with a gentle smile as we walked to the cruiser.
“So do you really think we’ll get anything? She could have seen only part of it or maybe...” Detective Green started as we past District 47, the medieval England from the Cooper dimension .
“We have to at least try…” I replied as I looked over the news on the center of the dashboard. There was another wave of MLP (My Little Pony) dimensions that were declared contradictive and placed on an endangered list .
“You know something is off when we have to worry about cartoon fan-fictions.” Detective Green chuckled as he noticed the recent headline.
“We’re almost there…” I said, ignoring Detective Green’s remark. We pulled up in a company teleport station and soon found ourselves standing inside headquarters by the reception desk.
“Detectives, the Recollection room is ready for your use.” The reception droid announced as it noticed our presence.
“Thank you… let’s go shall we?” I said as I hurried Patricia along, as she was still adjusting to the sudden teleport. There were a few lines near the reception desk, which only meant that business was going to be as busy as usual. We made our way to room 26-B, which was now outfitted with the newest of Recall technology. As we opened the doors, we saw the main device which hovered above a simple chair with metal restraints on the arms and legs (I guessed that was for the more uncooperative witnesses). The device looked like a helmet droid with a projector outfitted in its center.
“You know, the more high tech something becomes, the simpler it looks right?” Detective Green remarked as we analyzed the three foot sphere.
“Perhaps… So where is the service button?” I asked looking for someone who can run the machine properly.
“No need detectives.” A mechanical voice said, though we failed to find the source. “Recall Master Type-8, Number 4327894 reporting for all your recalling needs.” The mechanical sphere beeped as it hovered above the chair with a strong hint of excitement.
“It can talk?” Detective Green said under his breath, a little taken back.
“You said that complex machines can look deceptively simple right?” I said with a small grin.
“So how may I be of service today detectives?” The Recall machine chimed as it quickly dusted the chair with a sanitation laser.
“Patricia, if you’ll please sit down.” I said motioning to the chair.
“Very well… if you insist.” Patricia gulped as she sat down below the sphere.
“So what would you like to recall?” The sphere beeped with what now sounded like a British accent.
“There was a black streak seen less than an hour ago that Miss Ook saw through her window this morning.” I stated as Patricia was strapped in the sphere.
“Very well. Let’s see what we can gather, shall we?” The Recall droid chimed as the projector began to play back Patricia’s recent memories. Before long, there was an image of Alikbar walking in the street and then quickly overtaken by a black streak, just as Patricia described it. According to the timer on the lower corner, the entire scene occurred in less than three seconds.
“Well, looks as though we have our work cut out for us…” Detective Green remarked as the black streak looked like a blur.
“Do not lose hope yet, for the Recall Master is on the case! Now enhancing image…” The Recall Master exclaimed as it began to zoom and enhance the quality of the split second the streak was in the center of the memory. After a few moments we managed to make out what appeared to have been a logo of a pitchfork with a skeleton impaled below the three points, though the image couldn’t be further enhanced to show any more detail.
“A pitchfork… you think some devils are behind this?” Detective Green pondered as we analyzed the image projected on screen.
“Sending image to Detective Database… a copy of this image has been sent to your communicators. You should be able to scan it to find some sort of lead…” The Recall droid chimed and sure enough we each had a new message on our communicators.
“Why can’t you just give us a list of places yourself?” Detective Green said, holding his communicator.
“My apologies Detectives, but I am only outfitted with the tools needed to fulfill my role as a Recall droid. I hope you luck on your investigation, detectives.” The Recall Master responded as it released Patricia and plugged itself into the ceiling and went on sleep mode.
“Well at least we got something… Ok Patricia, let’s get you back home.” I said as we made our way to the nearest teleport.