ic Deep Into That Darkness Peering (IC)

[KnightDisciple]

GM

 

It didn't take the team over-long to reach the office building. It was a mid-size high-rise in Downtown. As they came up to the curb, they'd see a taped-off area of sidewalk, with glass glittering on the ground. Several police cars were present, a couple of CSI vans. No news crews; either too early or too late for that, probably the latter. A few officers were standing outside, and they waved the teens through, eyebrows raised at the non-human companions, but any objections dying when the special badges were shown.

 

Inside, the lobby was a bit of a mess, damage all over, including the security desk, and a couple more police officers along with a few CSI techs. As well as two people who likely were employees of the company. One of them saw the teens, scowled, and started heading over, even as one of the officers listened to his radio, mouthed a curse as he saw the scowling man start marching, and hurried to try and catch up with him before he-

 

"Just what do you think you're doing here? This isn't the place for your kind of-of-of shenanigans!"

[Avenger Assembled]

"Go away," hissed Woodsman, glaring over at the office worker. Because they were on a mission from the headmistress, he neither called the man an idiot nor said anything about how he should kiss his ass. Taking that firm command as all that needed to be said, he stalked to the edges of the crime scene and began to look it over, careful not to step on anything that might be spoor or other kinds of evidence. "Came here from a burglary," he commented to one of the cops. "Whatcha think happened here?" 

[Fox]

"We're pretty sure it's exactly the kind of place for our shenanigans," Grim dryly observed, gesturing at the damage. "We were asked to help take a look. Got badges and everything," he added, flashing his own with carefully-cultivated disinterest. "I mean, you could try to drive us out, I guess. We're here to help, and we wanna help, but I wouldn't blame you. You could, what, set the dogs loose on us?"

 

He waved his badge in the vague direction of the doorway, where three large, smoke-furred hounds had been sniffing at the ground; they brought their heads up like one creature, eyes like round burning coals turning to look at the office worker. "I mean, I brought mine," the young psychopomp drawled, trying to scope out the area as best he could. The dogs, in perfect unison, cocked their heads in canine curiosity. "What did you bring?"

[KnightDisciple]

GM

 

The employee's anger wavered in the face of Woodsman's determined growls, but fell apart completely in the face of Grim's subtler approach. He wordlessly stuttered as one of the officers led him away.

"Come on, Mr. Green, let's get you a drink and sit down, I'm sure this is all very stressful."

 

Meanwhile another officer glanced between the slightly terrified civilian and the young heroes, sighed, shook his head, and walked over. He turned to face Woodsman first.

 

"Well, the immediate situation looks like a somewhat messy break-in here at ground level, they went up several floors to one of the main server areas, broke in, did something, then just straight-up went out a window. Most of the security footage is garbled, the most we've got cleaned up right now is a couple folks in dark, indistinct outfits. The techs are working to clean that up, and get a handle on everything. I won't speculate on connections since I don't have a lot of the evidence in front of me yet. If you all promise not to scare anyone else like that, feel free to look around. Just let us know if you're gonna do more than look, take pictures, and poke at glass; CSI likes to document everything, you know?"

 

He gives a slight smile at that, along with a helpless shrug, before getting more serious. 

 

"One guard got hurt. Nothing too bad, but he got knocked out, pretty rough. He didn't see who did it, some blow from behind. He's at the hospital, concussion treatment. No other on-site witnesses. It happened last night, middle of the night; building's been closed off all day and now into the evening. Still a mess, and the techs are struggling to get everything cataloged. It's...kind of weird. Take your time but let someone know where you're going, just so no one gets spooked, yeah?"

Edited June 29, 2017 by KnightDisciple

[Avenger Assembled]

"Sounds familiar," commented Woodsman. Don't just stand there looking at things. Gonna get written up for being a creeper again. "Lotta these tonight. What do they make here?" As he spoke, he kept studying the scene carefully, looking over the broken glass and marks of a melee and trying to think like a criminal. He was conscious of the others working, or talking, but did his best to concentrate on dividing his attention between the cop and the evidence. He didn't actually bother standing up for the conversation once he was on the scene, instead kneeling down over the broken glass with a careful eye. "Looks like they were headin' fer the elevators. That's a hard thing, though..or maybe the stairs by it. You wouldn't get in an elevator doin' this, they'd close it on ya." He rose to his feet and casually opened the stairway door, hand drifting down to the hatchet on his belt. "Right up the stairs," he commented conversationally as he stuck his head back in before disappearing up the stairwell. 

[Fox]

Grim's dogs made a canid sound uncomfortably like laughter as the office worker backed down and got escorted away, but almost immediately went back to searching the area, sniffing at the ground and doorways as dogs were wont to do. Grim opted for a more human approach, carefully picking his way around the lobby toward the back wall, hoping to get a better perspective on things.

 

And find a perspective he did - as soon as he was behind the reception desk he stopped short, backed up a half-step, and waved Reagent (and, possibly by accident, one of the CSI techs) over. "Well," he said, grabbing a pen out of a nearby mug and using it to gently push back a couple collapsed books; without them in the way, all could see the angular blade of throwing knife embedded in the wood. "I mean, this explains at least some of the cuts and maybe how they've been breaking glass, I guess? Kind of a weird thing to fight with, but who'm I to judge."

[Gizmo]

Reagent rose up onto her toes to get a look at the knife over Grim's shoulder before giving up and sidling around to the side instead. "Signature blades might well be a point of professional pride," she mused, producing a note book and quickly sketching out the shape of the weapon. "Perhaps it serves as a calling card? That would explain their leaving it behind rather than retrieving it for reuse." With Woodsman headed up the stairwell she hurried off in that direction, eager to get a look at everything and showing a little less wariness than her taciturn teammate in her curiosity. Head on a swivel the alchemist made a pleased sound and indicated a nook around one side of the elevator doors. "There's another of those knives stuck in the wall here! Would it be alright if I borrowed one, since you've two of them?" she called to the closest police technician, doing her best to look hopeful with half of her face covered. "I'd like to run a few test on the metal, determine if it has any distinguishing characteristics."

[Electra]

Raina had a quick whispered consultation with Merlin, then looked over to the others. "We're going to head straight up to the server room, see if we have better luck there than we did at the other place. Even if they've physically pulled the drives, we might get a better idea of what it is they were after." She jogged away lightly, too lightly, towards the stairs, the way her feet brushed the floor the best indication that she was using magic to avoid leaving footprints or disturbing anything. She caught up to Riley in the stairwell but didn't linger, looking for clues wasn't exactly her specialty. 

[KnightDisciple]

GM

 

 

On 7/5/2017 at 9:58 PM, Avenger Assembled said:

"Sounds familiar," commented Woodsman. Don't just stand there looking at things. Gonna get written up for being a creeper again. "Lotta these tonight. What do they make here?" As he spoke, he kept studying the scene carefully, looking over the broken glass and marks of a melee and trying to think like a criminal. He was conscious of the others working, or talking, but did his best to concentrate on dividing his attention between the cop and the evidence. He didn't actually bother standing up for the conversation once he was on the scene, instead kneeling down over the broken glass with a careful eye. "Looks like they were headin' fer the elevators. That's a hard thing, though..or maybe the stairs by it. You wouldn't get in an elevator doin' this, they'd close it on ya." He rose to his feet and casually opened the stairway door, hand drifting down to the hatchet on his belt. "Right up the stairs," he commented conversationally as he stuck his head back in before disappearing up the stairwell. 

 

The nearby cop shrugged at the question. 

 

"High-tech stuff. None of them have really said anything in particular about what they make here. Well. Design."

 

She gestured around the building.

 

"This is their central offices, and most of their designer space. All the stuff you can do from offices and cubicles. They've got other places around town that make or store stuff."

 

 

On 7/8/2017 at 1:15 AM, Fox said:

Grim's dogs made a canid sound uncomfortably like laughter as the office worker backed down and got escorted away, but almost immediately went back to searching the area, sniffing at the ground and doorways as dogs were wont to do. Grim opted for a more human approach, carefully picking his way around the lobby toward the back wall, hoping to get a better perspective on things.

 

And find a perspective he did - as soon as he was behind the reception desk he stopped short, backed up a half-step, and waved Reagent (and, possibly by accident, one of the CSI techs) over. "Well," he said, grabbing a pen out of a nearby mug and using it to gently push back a couple collapsed books; without them in the way, all could see the angular blade of throwing knife embedded in the wood. "I mean, this explains at least some of the cuts and maybe how they've been breaking glass, I guess? Kind of a weird thing to fight with, but who'm I to judge."

 

The CSI tech who noticed what Matt did quickly moved over and took a flurry of pictures. 

 

"Thanks, kid! I'm sure we'd have caught it eventually, but still. Yeah, this could break glass; either they kinda 'punched' it in, or someone threw it really hard or something." 

 

On 7/9/2017 at 2:01 AM, Gizmo said:

Reagent rose up onto her toes to get a look at the knife over Grim's shoulder before giving up and sidling around to the side instead. "Signature blades might well be a point of professional pride," she mused, producing a note book and quickly sketching out the shape of the weapon. "Perhaps it serves as a calling card? That would explain their leaving it behind rather than retrieving it for reuse." With Woodsman headed up the stairwell she hurried off in that direction, eager to get a look at everything and showing a little less wariness than her taciturn teammate in her curiosity. Head on a swivel the alchemist made a pleased sound and indicated a nook around one side of the elevator doors. "There's another of those knives stuck in the wall here! Would it be alright if I borrowed one, since you've two of them?" she called to the closest police technician, doing her best to look hopeful with half of her face covered. "I'd like to run a few test on the metal, determine if it has any distinguishing characteristics."

 

Another CSI tech was next to them now, using a tablet and glancing at the blade occasionally.

 

"Hm. Not getting any immediate matches, but it's also not a super-distinctive style."

 

At Reagen'ts question about taking a knife, the two techs stopped and looked at each other, before looking over to the third tech inside the lobby. Said tech, apparently the senior-most one present, gave a pained sigh and put on a rather pained expression, but nodded.

 

"So long as you don't mind passing us what you find, yeah. I guess we've got samples, and may you super-folks can figure something out with your fancy doodads sooner than the lab could."

 

There's a weird combo of hope and resignation in his voice at that speculation. 

 

On 7/9/2017 at 11:22 PM, Electra said:

Raina had a quick whispered consultation with Merlin, then looked over to the others. "We're going to head straight up to the server room, see if we have better luck there than we did at the other place. Even if they've physically pulled the drives, we might get a better idea of what it is they were after." She jogged away lightly, too lightly, towards the stairs, the way her feet brushed the floor the best indication that she was using magic to avoid leaving footprints or disturbing anything. She caught up to Riley in the stairwell but didn't linger, looking for clues wasn't exactly her specialty. 

 

The lead tech nodded. 

 

"I'll let the team up there know. Last report, at least most systems were at least partially intact. Just please check with them before, ah, accessing anything."

 

The stairwell was clear of anyone, friend or foe, and had few signs of violent passage. 

Edited July 12, 2017 by KnightDisciple

[Avenger Assembled]

"Server room, huh? Wonder if somebody swiped one." Swiveling his head at a small, short noise coming from near Raina, Riley had the distinct impression that Merlin was stifling a chuckle at his expense, and briefly gave the monkey a hard look before he remembered that made him look like a dip. So I'm not a computer guy! he thought, annoyed as he led the way to the server room's door, glancing quickly at a wall map as they went to familiarize himself with the layout of this floor of the building. He was interested in technology of all kinds, but computers were not really his thing - he preferred his media physical and his records somewhere that the power going down couldn't wipe them. 

 

His bow out, he kicked open the door. "Knock-knock!"

[KnightDisciple]

20 hours ago, Avenger Assembled said:

"Server room, huh? Wonder if somebody swiped one." Swiveling his head at a small, short noise coming from near Raina, Riley had the distinct impression that Merlin was stifling a chuckle at his expense, and briefly gave the monkey a hard look before he remembered that made him look like a dip. So I'm not a computer guy! he thought, annoyed as he led the way to the server room's door, glancing quickly at a wall map as they went to familiarize himself with the layout of this floor of the building. He was interested in technology of all kinds, but computers were not really his thing - he preferred his media physical and his records somewhere that the power going down couldn't wipe them. 

 

His bow out, he kicked open the door. "Knock-knock!"

 

There were people inside the server room...specifically, two unarmed  CSI techs and a company IT employee. All three jumped in surprise, offered some form of a shout or shriek of surprise, and yelled some variation on "don't shoot". The room itself was damaged, but not completely trashed. The three people already inside were at the end of one row of servers on their racks, several of the machines pulled partially out of their rack on the sliding rails, covers pried off, a few ports wrecked. The techs had been clustered around the monitor and keyboard at the end of the row. The older CSI tech spoke up first.

 

"For heaven's sake kid, the thieves left! You don't need to go kicking doors and waving weapons around! Do you think we'd have let any civilians into the lobby, or shoot, have any of us CSIs here, if they thought it was an active crime scene?"

[Electra]

"Oh for the love of-" Raina elbowed her way past Riley and into the server room, pushing his bow down and giving the techs her most ingratiating smile. "I am SO sorry about him," she simpered at the technicians. "This is his very first mission and he's really excited. I promise he wasn't really going to do anything bad, and he's very sorry for scaring you." She nudged Riley with her elbow, hoping to at least get a nod out of him. "I'm Sparkler and this is Woodsman. I wanted to get a look at the setup in here, and he insisted that he should come along and protect me. It looks like there was a lot of damage?" 

[Avenger Assembled]

Oh-

 

Woodsman briefly felt like the Earth had fallen away beneath his feet - but he wasn't one to dwell on embarrassment, even mortal embarrassment, in a stressful situation. He could dwell on that later, alone, in the privacy of his thoughts or maybe the dorm rooftop or maybe in the Headmaster's office when she talked about how he'd almost gotten himself killed or almost killed somebody else - Nope! "...sorry," he apologized, almost inaudibly at Raina's jog. "Thought it was empty."

 

He hung back as Sparkler spoke to the cops, casting his own gaze around the room. "Finda zipdrive?", he muttered, not quite making eye contact with the civilians. 

[KnightDisciple]

GM

 

On 7/13/2017 at 7:39 PM, Electra said:

"Oh for the love of-" Raina elbowed her way past Riley and into the server room, pushing his bow down and giving the techs her most ingratiating smile. "I am SO sorry about him," she simpered at the technicians. "This is his very first mission and he's really excited. I promise he wasn't really going to do anything bad, and he's very sorry for scaring you." She nudged Riley with her elbow, hoping to at least get a nod out of him. "I'm Sparkler and this is Woodsman. I wanted to get a look at the setup in here, and he insisted that he should come along and protect me. It looks like there was a lot of damage?" 

The techs relaxed at Raina's much more laid-back attitude. 

 

"It's okay, I guess. I've had a twitchy cop get a bit excited once or twice on me, so it's not my first rodeo."

 

At the talk shifting to the damage, he glanced at the company IT man, who nodded a bit.

 

"Some. They definitely knew where they were headed; most of the racks are fine, this one is the only one that got damaged. Some of the drives are wrecked, but the backups are intact. They dropped a couple viruses in, but honestly they're pretty old ones, our software's cleaning them out enough to back up data before we wipe them."

 

On 7/13/2017 at 9:07 PM, Avenger Assembled said:

Oh-

 

Woodsman briefly felt like the Earth had fallen away beneath his feet - but he wasn't one to dwell on embarrassment, even mortal embarrassment, in a stressful situation. He could dwell on that later, alone, in the privacy of his thoughts or maybe the dorm rooftop or maybe in the Headmaster's office when she talked about how he'd almost gotten himself killed or almost killed somebody else - Nope! "...sorry," he apologized, almost inaudibly at Raina's jog. "Thought it was empty."

 

He hung back as Sparkler spoke to the cops, casting his own gaze around the room. "Finda zipdrive?", he muttered, not quite making eye contact with the civilians. 

At that question, the younger CSI tech looked thoughtful.

 

"Not exactly, but several of them have damage on the USB ports on the front. Someone coming in, yanking them out, shoving in a drive, and then yanking it back out would explain some of the damage. The rest of the damage could be them just yanking covers off for quick access, and stabbing a few drives to throw off their trail?"

 

He didn't seem 100% sure of himself but it wasn't the worst theory around. The company man spoke up.

 

"We're still trying to figure out what they got, though; they were in and out so quick it's a bit sloppy, but I'm not sure they didn't mess up extra systems just to cover their tracks."

Edited July 17, 2017 by KnightDisciple

[Fox]

Grim's dogs had come around to the desk, looking apologetic. "Nothin', huh?" he asked, kneeling down to rub them behind the ears; they leaned into his touch, but their body language was disappointment none the less. "S'okay. Every time is one closer to getting 'em."

 

"So, uh, how long did all of this take?" he asked, standing back up. His dogs circled his legs, pacing back and forth for want of something to do. "The crime bit, that is. I'm getting the feeling they kinda knew what they were after, but even busting their way through everything in their path it still must've taken them a few minutes to get in and out?"

[KnightDisciple]

On 7/14/2017 at 8:16 PM, Fox said:

Grim's dogs had come around to the desk, looking apologetic. "Nothin', huh?" he asked, kneeling down to rub them behind the ears; they leaned into his touch, but their body language was disappointment none the less. "S'okay. Every time is one closer to getting 'em."

 

"So, uh, how long did all of this take?" he asked, standing back up. His dogs circled his legs, pacing back and forth for want of something to do. "The crime bit, that is. I'm getting the feeling they kinda knew what they were after, but even busting their way through everything in their path it still must've taken them a few minutes to get in and out?"

GM

 

The officers glanced at each other and at some unspoken signal, one spoke up, glancing at his notepad.

 

"Well, they were pretty sneaky when they were running around. Lot of messed-up cameras, we don't know everything. But it was about 12 minutes; that's the span between the front window break, and the upstairs window break. The alarm system got...not turned off, but somehow the silent alarm signal didn't go out for half that time. Probably just one of the "toys" they had on them. The techs upstairs were trying to figure out what they did beyond break in and run around a bit."

[Gizmo]

"Delightful!" Reagent enthused as permission was given, already snapping up the blade and flicking a gloved fingernail against the metal to listen to the sound. She thought it probably best not to correct his assumption about her 'fancy' equipment; no sense wounding his professional pride by explaining that her techniques came largely from the mid 19th century, esoteric and fringe though they may have been at the time. "Naturally you'll be the first to hear about anything I uncover, sir. We truly appreciate the opportunity to learn, isn't that right, Mister Grim?" There was a demure charm in her voice that Matthew had only heard her use when dealing with cashiers or other adults she didn't expect to be dealing with for long.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Hm," Woodsman wandered back into the server room where he'd left Sparkler and Merlin. "Found where they went out - offices on the second left," he added for the benefit of the police. "Looks like they did it with ropes n'grapple, so probably not dealin' with the Flyin' Bandit here." He took out his phone, which was still technically on Peyton's plan, and painstakingly texted Grim. (Riley texted with the phone in one hand and typing slowly with the other one, a legacy of having had a phone for just a few years. He also texted in complete sentences and with punctuation.) THEY WENT OUT THROUGH THE NORTHSIDE ALLEY. CAN THE DOGS TRACK THEM? 

[KnightDisciple]

GM

 

Once Sparkler and Merlin were done in the server room, and Reagent had finished her chemistry work downstairs, the team regrouped upstairs to consider the exit scene. Grim and Woodsman compared notes, and the whole team headed outside. Once there, it took only a bit for a combination of Woodsman's skills and Grim's hounds' noses to pick up a more explicit trail. It dropped in and out, but after a bit of jogging along, it started to become clear they were headed for the 3rd reported crime area they'd been assigned by Raven. A high-tech storage warehouse that just happened to be owned by the same company they'd just traveled from. When that became clear, it was actually easier to keep with the trail, since they knew the rough direction to go.

 

When they arrived, most of the streetlights were out, and the now-approaching dusk made it difficult to get a good picture of what was going on around the large concrete slab of a building. There was a single patrol car out front, with a pair of officers sitting inside chatting. 

[Gizmo]

Objectively Winifred had confirmed that the ride on the back of Raina's flying broom was perfectly smooth when there wasn't any need for aerial acrobatics but there was a notable difference between knowing that and forcing herself to stop adjusting her balance every few minutes for fear of slipping off. That made it difficult for her to continue her chemical analysis as they moved on, at one point very nearly dropping the dagger and a small vial of oxidizing wash on whatever hopeless bystander might have been below them. Even so by the time they reached the warehouse she could confidently say that the blade had been hand-forged from metals mined exclusively in East Asia.

 

It wasn't quite the revelation she'd been hoping for after the crime scene investigators had been so accommodating and she was grumbling to herself as she dismounted. "Do we know what we're expecting to find this time?" she asked the others before they approached the patrol car.

[Electra]

"Hard to say," Raina replied, taking a good look at the building. "They've been covering their tracks pretty well on what exactly it is they're trying to take. Merlin's got a theory that they're trying to build a teleportation gate, but there's nothing in the manifest that would let them aim it. Of course, we're still guessing that this is what they're doing at all. Anyway, in spite of all their covering, we've been getting enough clues to follow them from place to place, so I'd say fifty-fifty odds that this place is a trap." 

 

With that, she stepped toward the patrol car, staying in the path of a streetlight so her uniform was visible. She walked up to the driver's side door and deployed her friendliest, most ingratiating smile. "Hi, we're helping Raven out on this investigation. Maybe you were told we were coming already? We'd like to take a look around inside."