[Continued from:Connecting the Dots ]

3:30 a. Well past the witching hour. Into the devils hour, really. Why was she up? She could't sleep. Hadn't been able too for a while, actually. But the fruits of her labor had been ripe enough to harvest, and she wasn't willing to let them start to rot. She had to share!

Hence why, at such an ungodly hour of the morning, she hesitantly knocked on Saphirus' door. She wasn't sure if he would answer. Or if he was even home, for that matter. She had to try, though. 

"Saph?" She knocked a little harder a second time, shifting her weight from one foot to the other and re-balancing all of the paperwork in her arms. 

Truthfully was a little scared that he wouldn't believe her. Or that he'd give her one of those 'Oh, dear..' looks and usher her back off to her room. She felt nervous tremors race up her spine, and willed them away. She had to do this... she had to try, and if he reacted badly then she would just find someone else to listen to her.

It didn't occur to her that she looked like a dorm room zombie after an all night Essay bender. The circles under her eyes were much more pronounced than she last remembered, she was still in a rumpled t-shirt and fleece shorts from three days ago. Sure, she had showered... once... but it looked like she had rolled though her dirty laundry hamper on the way out of her room. Her hair had been shoved into the messiest bun she'd worn in public by far, with spikes of pink jolting off in random directions around her head. 

She was a mess, and she was more or less blissfully unaware of it.

Faint Knock-knock. Stir.

Louder knock-knock. The unmistakable sound of a classic style alarm clock smashing into a wall.

Wait, why did he do that? Saphirus sat up, looking around his room with that blank, just woke up from a deep sleep, confused expression on his face.

The F#$%?

"... The f$^*?" He grumbled under his breath as he slowly got up and stumbled to the door. Did he forget he had a security shift or something?

What time was it?

"Saph?"

STUMBLE STUMBLE CRASH CURSE STUMBLE CLICK! The door opened quickly, and a super alert look came across his face. He was shirtless again, and his eyes had a tense look about them. He glanced up and down the hallway real quick.

"You okay?!"

His vision centered on her, standing there with arms full of papers.

"Uh..." Nope. He didn't have anything. What @#$^ing time was it?

Something crashed inside the room. Wide eyed, she glanced up and down the hall around her. Perhaps this was the wrong room? She zeroed in on the door number with an intensity only a severe lack of sleep could bring about. Nope. She recognized the room number.

More crashing, and cursing this time, ensued. She backed away from the door a step. It flew open suddenly and out lunged Saph, immediately scanning the area. Then he focused on her, and she grinned guiltily. "Yes?" She paused, "Wait no." She paused again.

"Perhaps? Can I come inside? I have something I need to show you!"

"Yes?" Oh okay, close door and sleep. "Wait no." OPEN DOOR! SLEEP IS FOR THE WEAK!

"Perhaps? Can I come inside? I have something I need to show you!" He paused for a moment, and looked back into his room. Looked like a dude lived in there alone. Crap. Crap crap crap.

"Uhh.... Yeah. Yeah, you... What the heck have you been up to Shelby? You look... Well... About how someone would expect, I guess."

He stepped back, and turned the light on, squinting in response to the sudden brightness. The X-Man turned and let her make her way in. The room wasn't a complete mess, but it definitely wasn't perfectly tidy. He grabbed a pair of jeans and smelled them, nodding a bit and pulling them on.

What the hell time was it, anyway? He looked to his clock, embedded in the wall. Another 5 bucks down the drain, and no time.

He wandered over and sat on his bed, scratching his head an rubbing his face tiredly.

Maybe he could tell the time with his phone? It was across the room. Screw that. He'd already sat down.

She chuckled nervously at his question, but tried to tip-toe around it. Instead of answering she hurried in behind him, careful not to drop any papers along the way. She didn't pay much attention to the state of his room, or him as he slipped pants on. Really all she was looking for was a good place to set all of her notes down where she wouldn't lose them.

"Okay, so first I just wanna say i'm not crazy." She paused, because she really wanted to get that through to him. "I'm just a little sleep deprived, andpossiblyalittlhungry, but that is beside the point." She rushed through her explanation, already in the process of spreading out the papers on the most viable, flat surface. His bed.

"I've been looking into sightings of Roach." She started, already having a hunch of the way he would respond to her because of that, so she hurried onward. "I've managed to find tons of sightings of him throughout the city, and while not all of them are documented there are quite a few that are." She held up one of the first shining examples she had found, the incident at the donut shop. "For example, a few years back he was spotted in this store by multiple witnesses. There was an assault, destruction of property, and somewhere a police report on it." She grumbled to herself about not having access to such things, though, and climbed onto the bed to reach a different paper.

"And this one here; he was spotted scaling the side of a building in broad daylight with an abducted woman, who he then threw off the top of the building. There were multiple witnesses, and a lot of different perspectives on the story." She had forgotten her laptop, so she couldn't show him the video, but she did have a grainy still shot from the video.

"And there's more!"

"Okay, so first I just wanna say i'm not crazy." That never preceded something crazy. Nope. Never. "I'm just a little sleep deprived, andpossiblyalittlhungry, but that is beside the point." Jesus, he needed some Coffee. He felt like... Well, like she looked!

She was in his room. Jees, Elke didn't even really go into his room anymore. It felt a little strange to have anyone in his place like this. Oh well, though, he was pretty good at rolling with the blows. He sat on his bed, and she started laying out papers on it. Around him. Okay.

"Uh... You sure yer alright?"

"I've been looking into sightings of Roach. I've managed to find tons of sightings of him throughout the city, and while not all of them are documented there are quite a few that are.

Saph looked at her for a moment as she started talking, and just kept picking up steam. He wasn't sure what to say. He just sat there silent, watching, looking at the things she wanted him to look at.

"For example, a few years back he was spotted in this store by multiple witnesses. There was an assault, destruction of property, and somewhere a police report on it. And this one here; he was spotted scaling the side of a building in broad daylight with an abducted woman, who he then threw off the top of the building. There were multiple witnesses, and a lot of different perspectives on the story."

He stared still.

"And there's more!"

"Shelby."

Silence.

"...What fuckin time is it?"

"Shelby."

She paused, un-focusing from her current train of thought in order to look at him. He looked tired.

"...What fuckin time is it?"

Her expression shifted. From one of utter concentration to one of confusion. The time? What did the time matter when something so important was right in front of them?

She glanced around her. Took in his room fully. A standard bachelors pad. Little messy. Nothing she wasn't used too, considering she was... had been... a poor college student.

"...uh..." She paused, uncertain about what to say. "I dunno."

She sat down, papers tucked over and under her, and fiddled with a page in her hands. Maybe this had been a bad idea after all. Maybe she should have chickened out when she was out in the hall. She stared off into space, not really looking at anything, and fell silent.

"...uh...I dunno."

He saw her look out doubt, and felt a bit more awake for a moment. Damnit, this was obviously important to her. More important than sleep. She needed this, didn't she?

He watched her another moment, and suppressed a sigh. "Well... Guess we ain't gonna know the time for this, then, huh." He looked over at his phone on his dresser. Not happening.

"Tell me everything, then. We'll see what we can do." He knew some things too; a while back he'd investigated Roach. It had been fruitless. Gangsters didn't talk about him for fear of death, many mutants respected him too much to sell him out, and most eyewitness accounts were crazed from trauma. He was a locked box.

Maybe together they could find something.

"You need food, or something before we go any further? You look... Well, like sh@%, a bit. Like, not bad like you are a bad lookin person. You aren't. You look good, but like, in a bad state." @#$^in smooth, Saph. "Sleep or something might help. Or... Or we can just jump into it. That's fine too, I guess."

Where was he again?

"Tell me everything, then. We'll see what we can do."

She gave him a look from the sides of her eyes, not bothering to turn her head. Her expression didn't budge. 

"You need food, or something before we go any further? You look... Well, like sh@%, a bit. Like, not bad like you are a bad lookin person. You aren't. You look good, but like, in a bad state."

Her lips twitched a little. On the cusp of a small smile.

"Sleep or something might help. Or... Or we can just jump into it. That's fine too, I guess."

Then it was gone. Back to an blank stare down at her feet, which bounced ever so slightly over the lip of the bed. Not intentionally this time, but because she just didn't have the energy anymore.

"I can't sleep." She breathed out from her nose slowly, and her fingers flexed on the paper in her hands. "All I hear is that laugh." And food? She didn't even want to get into that. He didn't need to know that even thinking about eating made her feel sick to her stomach. At least it had stopped growling a few hours ago.

"I had hoped that maybe if I found something it would help, you know?" Help the investigation, and help herself. How he took it, she wouldn't know. "And when I first started looking there wasn't much. No one was talking about it. But..." She turned slightly, gathering some or the documents around her into her hands. She half held the stack towards him, "... then I started to find things. Little things at first like people posting rumors and junk, but then they all started to have little similar details. An accent. Hats. Unpredictability. I started piling them all together and they made a big picture... like a puzzle."

She looked over at him fully, then, and exhaustion was plain on her features. "It's like he's everywhere, but no one wants to talk about him. Most of the posts are anonymous. The papers who wrote stories about him passed them off like jokes; it's bizarre." She glanced down and spotted a paper next to her, and carefully picked it up. It was the printed form from the message she had gotten.

"I joined a forum where someone had mentioned a mutant that fit his description. It was a rubbish story, but I figured, hell, why not? Posted my own question asking for help. Got a few replies last night, but...." She held that page out to him as well. "I got one good reply."

And here was the crazy part. The part she had been worried about. "He's got to have some way of keeping tabs on things all the time, right? How else would he have known about the gig at the mall and then the..." She paused, gathering the strength she would need to say it. "... the dinner."

She pressed on before she could really think on it too much, lest she make herself sick again. "Well, as it turns out he does. I got a message from someone about my question. When I contacted them, that person informed me that he does indeed have a way of keeping tabs on people or things without being there himself. He uses Cockroaches."

She stared at him pointedly, eyes locked on his. She was waiting to see any sign that he didn't believe her. Any inkling of doubt, or disbelief. "He's got me under watch. Must have had one of them following me somehow even before he... he attacked..." She couldn't finish the sentence. It was too hard, and too soon. She removed her eyes from him, not wanting him to catch right of the glimmer of moisture that suddenly appeared and clenched her hands in her lap. 

Saph could only really nod passively as she mentioned not being able to sleep. The frustrating description of tracking him down and having little success aside from the occasional anecdotal story was very similar to his own experience, despite the fact that he seemed to be everywhere. But then she started talking in terms that piqued his interest a little more.

"He's got to have some way of keeping tabs on things all the time, right? How else would he have known about the gig at the mall and then the... the dinner." Yeah... Some of the stories involving the Roach took a bit of a crazier turn. He'd always accredited it to a sort of hysteria. People seeing him everywhere when he was not.

"Well, as it turns out he does. I got a message from someone about my question. When I contacted them, that person informed me that he does indeed have a way of keeping tabs on people or things without being there himself. He uses Cockroaches."

Saph tilted his head a bit, examining the inkling of the idea in his mind as she clarified.

"He's got me under watch. Must have had one of them following me somehow even before he... he attacked..."

By the end of her sentence, her fragile state worsened a little bit. The older man placed a hand on her shoulder. "Hey now... Yer alright. I'm here." He had to keep her going. This seemed to be the glue that was holding her together right now.

"Who did you talk to? They give a name?" He considered bringing up the show they'd been on as a possible way that Roach knew where they would be... He wasn't sure that would help, though. Still, this mystery source seemed to intrigue him.

Her brows pinched, but she breathed in deeply to try and calm herself when he helped to assure her. She hadn't seen anything in his expression that screamed doubts. Or that she had lost her mind somewhere within the last three days. That was something, at the very least.

"...No." She started, pointing back to the paper she had fished out. "It was under an anonymous name, on a freshly made account. I tried to get more out of whoever it was, but they never answered me back. They deleted their own profile after sending me that message, too." Which led her to a dead end. Another one.

"It's possible for the Admins or moderators of the site to track the IP address of the sender, at least for when the created the account." Her frown deepened, "I was told that they couldn't give that information out to me. Internet safety 101."

She turned again, shifting a leg under her. "But, if what they said was true, as there is really a bug following me around reporting on my activities..." Well, she didn't want to think about that really. Sure, the school was a safe place and they would protect her from the giant homicidal insect man, but what about an actual insect? Did they have some special contract with an exterminator to take care of them?

"He had those smaller versions of himself in the truck, remember?" She had told him about the smaller insect people who had talked casually about eating her for dinner. "What if they aren't the only size of them out there?"

Hmm... The website person wasn't going to be a resource in the future, then.

"Yeah, we can't get that IP Legally. If they want to be anonymous, they have that right. I ain't gonna force the matter there."

Saphirus grabbed one of the many documents scattered about, glanced at it, and traded it for another that he wasn't already familiar with. "I guess it is possible. I'm not saying it's not... An important part of these kinda things is not jumping to conclusions. Keep you mind open, but don't be easily distracted from what's important. If it's true, the evidence will form a sorta... consensus." He seemed a bit different, talking about things like this.

Well composed. Educated, almost.

"The small bugs... His kids, maybe? They escaped the scuffle last week. We'd never seen them before now." He contemplated this for a moment.

"We would have to find some way to prove it... Catch one, maybe. Dunno how we'd plan to do that, though. I mean, if we're being watched, how do we know they don't know we're on to them, you know? That makes things even harder."

"I guess it is possible. I'm not saying it's not... An important part of these kinda things is not jumping to conclusions. Keep your mind open, but don't be easily distracted from what's important. If it's true, the evidence will form a sorta... consensus."

"I understand... I just," She took a breath, collecting her thoughts. "I just don't want to miss anything, you know? I don't want it to happen again. I haven't torn my room up or anything or put any holes in the walls looking for secret agent bugs... but i'd rather be cautious." She paused again, shifting. "It's kinda like when your a kid and you're afraid of the dark. You want someone to check all of the places a monster could hide, even if there has never been one there before, just because of the off chance that there might be one there now."

Not that she was afraid of the dark or anything. Nope. Definitely had never run from a dark room before like something was gonna grab her.


Her brows furrowed and she nodded slowly. "They spoke, those smaller bugs. Broken sentences... but they definitely showed some intelligence. Probably around the same as a kid would have." She tried to think back. Had she seen any other bugs? Did the message sender mean the big Roaches, or smaller ones?

God, this was frustrating. "I didn't really see them mentioned at all in any of the stories."

She reflected back on the abduction, before everything had spiraled out of control. "...He did mention that he had given them an order... what... what was it?" She turned away slightly, scratching at her head as she puzzled over her own question.

Her eyes closed and she adopted the sternest, most serious expression. Brows pinched together, lips drawn tight. "He said that he had given them an order to grab my camera, but that they were stupid... which was why they grabbed me instead." Maybe it would help, or maybe it was nothing. Either way it couldn't hurt to tell him.

"Called them his 'Little Friends'."

"I understand... I just... I just don't want to miss anything, you know? I don't want it to happen again. I haven't torn my room up or anything or put any holes in the walls looking for secret agent bugs... but i'd rather be cautious. It's kinda like when your a kid and you're afraid of the dark. You want someone to check all of the places a monster could hide, even if there has never been one there before, just because of the off chance that there might be one there now."

Saph listened to her, and folded his arms for a moment. He tapped his biceps in thought for a second, blinking when he finally realized he was shirtless. Huh.

"Sure. That's pretty normal, I'd say. Don't let it get to you, though. Be aware, not paranoid. Keep an eye out for your own safety, but don't lose sight of it by jumping at every noise in the dark. And you know... If there's anything I can do to help you feel safe. You let me know, okay?"

continuing their talk about the mini Roaches, Saph nodded at all of the information she gave, taking mental note of everything. "Maybe they are a part of his ability; that's why we haven't seen them til now. One thing I've noticed is that... I dunno. Over time, our abilities... Change, I guess? Grow. Maybe it's a new thing for him. Maybe his 'little friends' will lead us right to him?"

He stood up and made his way to his dresser, opening it, grabbing the first shirt he saw, and throwing it on. He then made his way back, sitting, and then silently cursing himself for not grabbing his phone while he was up there.

"I know one thing... Anything new is worth looking in to, because almost all of the old information isn't worth much."

"Sure. That's pretty normal, I'd say. Don't let it get to you, though. Be aware, not paranoid. Keep an eye out for your own safety, but don't lose sight of it by jumping at every noise in the dark. And you know... If there's anything I can do to help you feel safe. You let me know, okay?

Shelby slipped her glassed off so she could rub one eye with the back of her hand, attempting to watch him with the other. Her eyes were itchy and no matter what she did it wouldn't stop. Probably lack of sleep.

The yawn that escaped her a moment later confirmed that theory. "I'll try to manage that." She was still gonna check the showers top to bottom every time. "And I'll let you know if I need anything." A pause, "Though just having someone to talk to helps... and having you physically be here." She'd already gotten a hold of her family in Seattle, or rather the police had, to inform them of her current in-protective-custody status... so she wasn't allowed to call them. She didn't have a wide branch of friends in the city, because school, and she wouldn't have been able to talk to them either. She was more or less stranded and alone, so she would willingly latch onto whoever made themselves available.

"Maybe they are a part of his ability; that's why we haven't seen them til now. One thing I've noticed is that... I dunno. Over time, our abilities... Change, I guess? Grow. Maybe it's a new thing for him. Maybe his 'little friends' will lead us right to him?"

"Really?" She blinked, tugging her hair out of it's mess of a bun to try and re-do it. Her arm flopped into her lap as he caught her attention. "I always just kinda figured you, ya know... were born with it. Current levels and all." That was an interesting concept. Born with one ability, but able to mature into it and grow it as you developed?

"... What did you start off being able to do? Are your powers any different now from before?"

It was kinda shitty hearing that all of the things she managed to dig up probably weren't worth their weight in salt, but... meh. She was feeling another tired spell coming on. She leaned back on her other arm, lazily watching the man.