Luka

Luka had always wanted to be a detective. Captivated by crime dramas and investigative pieces in his youth, he always admired the keen intelligence of the detectives able to unravel such stories first hand. As such, he worked hard to achieve his dream. While he had to study a good amount in his young adult years, this studying put him leaps and bounds ahead of his peers. The gap between his skill level and that of his peers proceeded to contribute negatively to his ego. He was a know-it-all, believed himself to be the best of the best, insurmountably more talented and gifted than those around him. His smug attitude didn't win him many friends, but his excellent resume reeking of high attention to detail and his many achievements allowed him to gain employment at the most highly respected detective agency in his region. He, of course, let this job placement even further inflate his ego, and upon walking in for his first day of the job, his smug and snarky attitude had won him a healthy amount of disdainful glances from his new coworkers.

His coworkers and superiors couldn't deny the kid had skill and would be a valuable addition to their team, but... his attitude had to go. They decided to assign him his very first case - a missing person's case, gone cold and with no leads. They hoped to drill into him the cold realities of their work: not everyone can be saved or found, even if you're the best in the room. Luka, being ever the confident rookie, gladly took the seemingly impossible case, hoping to make a powerful impression on his superiors with his natural ability. Luka would soon find the case to be much harder than anticipated.. Though he never let his determination falter. He came in to the office early mornings and stayed late nights, combing over every possible piece of evidence, following up on every supposedly inconsequential lead they'd received on the case, and examining every last crevice of the victim's life. He refused to believe in the possibility that this case couldn't be solved. He left no stone unturned. His unwillingness to let the case rest did, in fact, impress his superiors. Despite all the big talk of his natural ability and his smug attitude, he truly did possess the analytical grit necessary to exceed in this profession. It was clear that nothing occupied Luka's attention more than this case, even when he was technically off the clock. One evening, late at night as Luka was drifting off to sleep, a realization hit him. He was reminded of a connection that had been overlooked and pushed aside at the very beginning of the investigation... it certainly wasn't a smoking gun, but it was enough to point his attention in the direction of a potentially implicated third party.

Luka brought this new discovery to the attention of his superiors the following morning. However, they didn't seem to think it amounted to anything. They did allow him to pursue it, though, as they hoped it would put the nail in the coffin for the cold status of this case. Much to their collective surprise, it turned into Luka discovering something larger than he'd ever imagined. This missing person's case was a kidnapping, centered around his estranged brother, who hadn't been related to him by blood. In fact, it would be a bit of a stretch to call them related at all, considering the two hadn't met until the elder had brought the victim to court over his parents' last will and testament. CCTV footage was found of the victim meeting up with the suspect, getting into a car with him, and never being seen again. The suspect, however, had an active public presence, and was easy to keep tabs on. Luka committed himself to tailing the suspect for several days at varying times, and after a solid month of watching, he unearthed something larger than he'd ever imagined.

Luka ended up tailing the suspect straight to an underground fighting ring. The suspect and supposed leader of the ring was literally operating the ring underground. From the outside, the building looked like an abandoned warehouse, but upon sneaking in, Luka discovered lower levels housing caged-in rings, seating, live broadcasting equipment, and cells for the unwilling participants. Once he figured out what the building's true purpose was, Luka was smart - instead of trying to play the hero, he snuck back out to call for backup. By this point, this case was so important to him that his ego had taken a back seat. If he messed this up, real lives were at stake, so he had to be careful with it. After explaining the situation to an absolutely bewildered team, Luka managed to get plenty of backup to the location, and the team successfully retrieved the participants. Following some soft questioning, it was easy to tell that none of the participants were there willingly. Some were recognized from missing persons cases, some had no cases at all, and some didn't even legally exist. As the team began to process all of the participants, Luka couldn't help but notice that the odds were not in his victim's favor... Of all the bodies found, the only live ones were tall, muscular, and practically built like wrestlers. His victim was much smaller than them all, and certainly didn't have the mass to give him an upper hand... Luka's outlook was bleak, to say the least.

Until he saw someone with dark hair, long floppy ears, and a small physique looking a bit lost in the midst of the rescued. Luka rushed to get a better look, relief making its way into his features as he could positively identify his missing person. Greeting him, he introduced himself and invited him over to a quieter area to answer some questions for him... He was surprised to find that he didn't want to leave another rescued fighter's side, though. Inviting the other person to come along, Luka got the two of them comfortable and asked a few questions of the stranger, but many questions to his missing person. Once it seemed like he'd asked all the questions they could handle, he offered to get them set up in a hotel for the night, and invited them in to his office in the morning. Luka returned to the office that evening to widespread pride and recognition from his superiors - he'd done something they all couldn't. And while they were expecting him to be rather smug about it, he surprised them with his humbleness. Despite the case not resulting in the expected outcome, it seemed that his superiors had in fact managed to humble him.

Over the following weeks, Luka did everything he could to help with the aftermath of his big case, including meeting with Benji and Ford regularly for more information or to just check in and see how they were doing. They'd become close to him through the ordeal, and Luka had grown fond of them in return. He went above and beyond, managing to get them everything they needed to start a normal life again, and once the case was formally closed, Luka was even able to return to Benji his parents' old home that he'd lost in court. He still visits their cafe sometimes, and even got a paw print tattoo on his inner forearm to commemorate both his first case, and the kinship he'd found through it. Nowadays, Luka works hard to help anyone who seeks his assistance, and has managed to make quite a name for himself in his field despite his relative rookie status.