The direct approach was not one she was used to. Her mutation, her profession, all of it was usually veiled in subtlety. Facing things head on might be nice for a change.

She could see how alarmed some of the parents were, and wondered if they thought the pair of mutants were attacking, or just there to pick up their child like everyone else. Oh noes, everyone, your kid might be going to school with a mutie. Actually, there was no 'might' about it; they knew Annabelle was a visible mutant.

That might explain why it was only some of the parents that looked alarmed at Abyss' presence, while others didn't even turn to look a second time.

Apparently they had arrived exactly at dismissal time, because a sea of children was waiting for them inside the door. They looked up and up and up at Abyss and mostly ignored Jocelyn. One of the littlest ones, with his shirt still smeared no doubt from an earlier escapade in the art room, slumped and rolled and slinked along the wall behind his classmates and his teacher, to a place where he could get a better look at the big man.

“You have a tail, mister,” he announced loud enough for everyone to hear.

One of the teachers, a tiny little thing with steely hair and steel rimmed frames stepped forward. She may have been small, but the look she gave the two intruders made it obvious that she was not a teacher to be messed with.

“We need to dismiss the students,” the way Mrs. Grey Hair stated it didn't leave them much in the way of options other than to step out of the way and let the students go past.

Jocelyn stepped up next to the woman and asked nicely, “Could you please tell us who Annabelle's teacher is?”

His tail wiggled at the boy, and lightly poked in the belly. Abyss however remained aloof of such nonsensical observations; of course he had a tail.

Abyss looked down to the woman that had steel blood in her veins. He almost stepped out of the way just out of respect. He then opened his mouth to reply. But luckily for them both Lupe stepped in and allowed a duel to the death be avoided her glare versus his distaste for authority.

He stepped to the side of the hallway leaving the woman to be a much less impeding blockage in the flow of tiny footed traffic. “I hope you kids listen to your teachers and your parents.” If they aren’t jerks, he finished the sentence in his head.

He didn’t even want to think about how lacking his own parents were. He glanced outside to see the others had made it into the parking lot; they got stuck in school zone traffic. He was proud of them for not running anyone over, yet…though it looked like Jupiter was yelling something at a crossing guard.

The elderly teacher stared the pair of mutant intruders up and down, as if she could see into their very souls.

“You're not here to cause trouble,” the teacher informed them. It wasn't a question. It was a statement with certain implications about what would happen if they did cause trouble. Jocelyn didn't want to find out what those consequences would be. Something in the woman's eyes said it would be a terrible idea.

Somewhere behind Abyss, two small hands grabbed at the poking tail, trying to get a better look.

Jocelyn met the teacher's eyes. Everything about this woman demanded respect.

“No, we're not,” the undercover detective confirmed.

Just then the bell rang and the flood of children was released. For the next few minutes there would be no talking for the adults, as tiny little voices exalted in their freedom for the rest of the day. Traffic cleared and finally it was quiet again.

“Ahem,” the steely teacher raised an eyebrow at someone small. Her voice was cautionary, “Cornelius...”

“Huh?” The little boy, who was now swinging from Abyss' tail like it was a monkey bar caught his teacher's glance. “Oh. Bye Mr. Monkey Tail! Bye Mrs. umm...Mrs! Bye Mrs. Stahlblut!” With that, he was gone, out the door to the waiting (and somewhat alarmed looking) embrace of his mother.

“To answer your earlier question, I am Annabelle's teacher. What do you want?”

His tail and the boy played as Abyss ignored them both. Abyss raised an eyebrow at the small elderly woman, it had been a long time since anyone spoke to him that way, telling him how it was, it reminded him of the labs and that wasn’t good for either of them. if he was here to cause trouble, trouble would have already happened.

Abyss’s tail waved bye to his temporary playmate and slumped as the kid ran out with the rest of them, Abyss smiled slightly as he received a few more kisses than he might have normally after school, good for you kid.

Abyss answered, what they wanted and went ahead answered a couple of questions early as to why. “You may have noticed that Annabelle hasn’t been in class lately, we want to rectify that by finding her, if you could show us to her locker or to anything she might have left here, it would be of great help. With the missing child rate skyrocketing over the last few months, we decided to try to help take some of that load off of the NYPD’s shoulders and are starting with Annabelle; with any luck we will have her back before Monday.” He might have said too much, but he wanted to convince her without intimidation. She might have been stern, but she didn’t want to hold out on them, he didn’t want to exhibit that side in front of Lupe, but the little girl was at stake and he would risk his reputation, If needed.

Mrs. Stahlblut regaurded them with suspicion, then finally seemed to decide that showing them Annabelle's locker couldn't hurt, “Follow me.”

Lupe glanced around the school as she followed the older woman. The custodian gave her a friendly smile as she passed, and even had one for Abyss. All along the walls hung colorful art projects: here a display of fish painted with various textures, there giant flowers made form painted papers, and finally spring chicks made from yellow children's hand prints. She scanned them, looking for Annabelle's name in the corner of one. They stopped outside a door decorated with a tree. Apples emblazoned with student's names hung from the branches. There was Annabelle's name, a little green apple that swung from one of the very top branches, as if it was trying to reach for bigger and better things.

“Your classroom?” Lupe intoned.

With a nod, Mrs. Stahlblut added, “And Annabelle's cubby. She went home one day a little early because she wasn't feeling well. Something must have been bothering her, because she forget to bring her backpack with her. She never forgot her homework.”

A forgotten backpack was a good start.

Lupe waved Abyss inward, then followed the teacher through the door into the classroom. Everything was tiny sized, from tables to chairs, to lowered windows and sinks and counters. It would be the perfect atmosphere for someone who was only three and a half feet tall.

The undercover detective went towards the indicated cubby. The backpack that belonged to Annabelle was an old one, far too worn to have been new at the beginning of the school year. Inside, the papers were meticulously organized, with finished papers on one side of her folder and new assignments on the other. There was a sweater all folded up. An empty lunch box.

Jocelyn's nose picked up the rest of the story. Her lunch had been peanut butter sandwiches and a banana, nothing else. She lived with an older man, a smoker, and a younger woman. Their house was musty. They had cats. Amidst all the smells, the strongest one was that of Annabelle herself. Lupe committed it to memory.

“Do you mind if we look around your room a bit?” They could perhaps find a few more clues. Or hear a few more clues, if the older woman was feeling inclined to talk.

Abyss felt ridiculous in the elementary school, everything was to miniature people scale. If things hadn’t been so serious he would have been tempted to do a king Kong or Godzilla impression. His traced all of the art work and workings of a normal school room. He ducked through the doorway and held his hands together infront of him feeling more conscious of his ability to smush little things than normal.

Abyss was happy the girl got a chance to experience this atmosphere, and was agitated that someone was keeping her from it. he would be making it clear that this girl was off limits to the bigots of the world.
Abyss turned and saw something sticking out from underneath a closet, not quite sure what it was or how it got there Abyss’s tail batted at it questioningly.

The old woman raised an eyebrow. “I haven’t been able to get that from under there for the thirty eight years I have worked here.” She sighed and abyss smiled. At the common enemy.

“I’ll get it, if you tell us anything you might remember about the day she disappeared, You mentioned she left early because she wasn’t feeling well, did she go to the nurses from the class? Or did the nurse call her to the office because she was being checked out?” He wasn’t demanding anything.

He bent to the closet and lifted it with ease, He revealed a section of carpet that didn’t match the string was a mess of glue and construction paper attached to the carpet. The smell of must and mildew was perplexing.
He tentatively pulled at the carpet mess and Mrs. Grey hair cleared her throat. “That’s enough, get that chunk of carpet out of my room . Just tear it out and put that closet down so I can try to forget.”

Abyss smirked and tugged at the carpet removing the rectangle. He set the closet down and proceded to throw the ancient square away in a janitors trash can, which he gently nudged to a roll down the hall.
He came back into the room.

Mrs Stahlbut was starting to say. “ I remember she wasn’t feeling good when she came in that day. I shouldn’t be saying it, but I’ve had a hunch that she was checked out by someone who wasn’t on the list. It could have been CPS or some other government facility, but they had government written all over them. Now the nurse insists that her father was the one to check Anabelle out,” she walked over to her class room door glanced both ways and then closed it. “ but as anyone could tell you, he was too drunk most of the time to remember what he had done. The nurse seems to have convinced the step father that he checked her out. I’m almost ahundred percent sure he didn’t. I have wanted to tell someone but who do you tell? The police won’t believe me when the stepfather says he had her last.” She then sat down in her desk chair. “to be perfectly honest I’m afraid someone is going to come to hurt me now that I’ve given you two something to work with.”

Abyss shook his head, “we’ll keep you safe until its done.”

“how can the two of you keep me safe? I understand you are strong young man, but the two of you can’t keep an I on me all day every day.”

Abyss grinned, “How would you feel about having a teachers aid ?’ He was already pulling his cell phone out. “Venus, We need someone to protect a teacher. Yes. She is beautiful. Slow down, this is could take a whilke, are you sure? Ok, She’s all yours.”

He hung up the phone and smiled winningly at Mrs.Sthalbut. “My brother could stand to be taught some manners. If you get tired of him, tell him to send you Mars and you will have some intelligent conversation. “
Venus could be heard whistling in the hall way. “Come on Jocelyn, lets go see the Nurse.”