Log:Proteus and Ember, Scene 1

Proteus and Ember 2016/07/26 	 Lady Winters Night Marshal|Detective Carpenter Grimm Daemon Nexus Allison Dialydd Ember

1

Sirens pierce the otherwise quiet summer afternoon in the student quarter. A couple of fire trucks, an ambulance, and multiple police cars respond to what appears to be a fire in one of the apartment buildings near the campus. It's a matter of only fifteen minutes before Detective Carpenter puts out a call for assistance over HeroNet...not with the fire itself, but with what appears to have been a murder.

The detective is outside the building, waiting for whatever meta assistance might arrive, along with a couple of officers. Firefighters are busy cleaning up and making sure the building is safe to enter.

Daemon enters from MagLev System.

Sirens pierce the otherwise quiet summer afternoon in the student quarter. A couple of fire trucks, an ambulance, and multiple police cars respond to what appears to be a fire in one of the apartment buildings near the campus. It's a matter of only fifteen minutes before Detective Carpenter puts out a call for assistance over HeroNet...not with the fire itself, but with what appears to have been a murder.

The detective is outside the building, waiting for whatever meta assistance might arrive, along with a couple of officers. Firefighters are busy cleaning up and making sure the building is safe to enter.

Lady Winters has no super fast movement ability so she arrives in an undignified fashion riding pillion on the back of a Road Rager's bike. The biker hurries off after Nicky dismounts and thanks him. Meanwhile Nicky heads first to the ambulance to see if her healing talent is needed.

Gabrielle lives relatively close to this section of the Student Quarter. She was going for a burger run when she noticed the smoke in the skyline. But then her phone gives her a Heronet alert and she glances at it, swiping away from Pocket Monsters Going.

In a flicker and a soft, rustling orchestra of whispers, Gabrielle Grimm vanishes from her spot and reappears outside the building, looking around. A grin forms on her face. "Hey, Detective Carpenter. Long time no see."

Nexus appears in the area shortly after the HeroNet announcement, not far from whoever is managing the firefighting efforts, offering his assistance in extracting anyone trapped inside.

Allison enters from MagLev System.

One of the medics looks up to Nicky, "I think we have it under control, but thank you. There were a couple of people who are dealing with some smoke inhalation. But I suspect you should talk to the detective."

Amplitude smiles and nods to Grimm, "Nice to see you again. Though I wish it coudl be under better circumstances."

Carpenter smiles and nods to Grimm, "Nice to see you again. Though I wish it coudl be under better circumstances."

Daemon arrives swinging along a webline- until the lower rooftops make swinging a bit less efficient than running.

"When that happens, he takes to the rooftops- sprinting at top speed before taking large leaps over gaps.

The building is easy enough to see as smoke pours from the building.

Daemon swings down via a webline connected to a telephone pole mere moments behind Grimm.

Snow was on the roof of her apartment building which is in the quarter itself and was getting ready to head to help with the fire, after all a snowstorm could come in handy, but it looks like they have it under control. She hears the call and her icy armor hardens over her body. Her wings form from ice and then with a bit of frost she lifts into the air and over towards where the call came from. She alights on the ground, her wings folding up and fading into frosty mist. She does eye the fire but then looks for the detective.

"Yeaaah. Seems we never get to meet at an amusement park or the movies. Usually there's a dead body involved. We gotta stop meeting like this," Gabrielle quips.

The fire appears to be out. There is still some smoke coming from a second story window, but it's mere wisps compared to what it likely was twenty minutes prior.

The student quarter is north and west of the CBSU campus, and is entirely dependent on the university for its flavor, but its flavor is different. Much of it, especially in the back streets, is cheap housing, with students being the main tenants. On the three main roads, though - Courtland Way heading east, Harrisburg lane northwest, and Stardancer Boulevard south - are one or two grander buildings, most notably the stadium on Courtland and hospital on StarDancer. Along these roads, and scattered through the district, are other services such as students attract: fast food establishments, second-hand stores, laundromats, convenience stores, doughnut shops, and a small park.

The average age of people on the street is markedly lower than elsewhere in the city, whether walking, cycling, hoverboarding or just hanging out.

Nexus ports over to near the detective after confirming that the fire is under control, wishing he'd made it here earlier. "So what's happening?"

Lady Winters nods to the ambulance paramedic. "I'll be here if I'm needed. And, yes, I suppose I ought to go talk to the detective." She smiles wryly, "Whether he'll want to talk to me is another matter." Having said that she does indeed head to the detective.

The detective nods, "Let me give it a minute or two to see who else arrives. Then I can give you the full details. But there was a meta that was killed inside the building."

 transmits Julius to Allison as she works on her latest tech project, involving developing more extensive anti-intrusion software. She's trying to develop anti-virus type programming that works more like the human immune system. But she needed a break. So Julius's comment is welcome.

<> she remarks mentally with a nod as she starts heading for the exit... her exterior altering to appear more... well heroic. Not a smock so much as a bodysuit... but one with propulsion pods growing out of it when she gets outside. The drive field engages and she silently soars towards the campus. She comes down to land and the pods ooze back into her body. "I am told that help isn't needed for the fire, but for an investigation?" she asks in general as she gets on the ground.

Allison(#2665PenACcF?)

Standing at five foot seven inches tall, this young lady has a shining mass of reddish-gold hair that hangs down to her shoulders most times. She isn't a supermodel, but nobody would really call her ugly. Her face shows a small mass of freckles on her cheeks and up to the cheekbones and a slender neck leading to a trunk that shows she takes care of herself most times. She moves with a lithe grace and has a definite athletic muscle tone, like someone who plays soccer or swims a lot or perhaps both. Overall, she's a somewhat pretty girl in her mid to late teens who still has a bit of growing to do.

Daemon sees his friend Grimm quipping with the Detective and he decides to make his way towards them.

He nods curtly to Snow and Nexus as they arrive.

When Allison arrives, he can't help but be impressed with her tech. It's almost distracting. He pauses as he watches the flightpods disappear with keen interest.

Carpenter nods to the other arriving heroes. "Thank you all for coming." He takes note of Nicky, raising a brow, but he doesn't say anything specific about her presence. "This is a crime scene. I want you to all take that into account. I need to worry about forensics. So...please be careful. If any of you need to know what I mean by 'please be careful', speak up now, eh?"

Nexus shrugs. "Don't touch stuff, don't mess stuff up, don't step in stuff."

Lady Winters nods and puts her hand up. "That would be me, detective. I don't know what you mean."

Fires are for firemen. Firemen... beaches... drinking around... and maybe marshmallows. Now, if this fire had all of those things, she'd be there. As it is, she doubts it, and it's the call to HeroNet about a murder that draws Quiet's attention, diversion, and eventual arrival. There are no thrusters or great noise or fanfare involved; simply a few leaps here and there interspersed with spurts of null-G floating before she walks towards the gathering gallery,

Carpenter nods in agreement with Nexus, "Don't leave fingerprints. Don't take evidence from the crime scene. I called you all in for a reason, though."

Carpenter adds, "If you end up wanting to touch something in the scene, ask for a pair of gloves. I can have them provided for you."

Lady Winters glances down. Yep, bright blue goloves. Seems she's already equipped.

Snow nods her head, "I don't have fingerprints like this but can still wear gloves if it is required." she offers and looks around for a moment, "How may we help?" she asks, if they are here for a reason probably good to know what it is.

"I am better suited to computer forensics, or other technical parts of any investigation. I do not -possess- fingerprints, as my body is no longer flesh and blood. But I am -not- a crime scene investigator, so I will leave that to the experts." suggests Allison as her oddly appearing eyes flicker over towards Daemon, one glittering eyebrow raising. "If there is a question of what happened, perhaps there might be some surveillance systems that could have caught some inkling of what happened?"

Grimm smiles like a cheshire cat. "Learned all those basics in class. I'll be careful," she assures the Detective.

"I'm with her..." Daemon says pointing to Grimm as he makes eyes beneath his helmet at Allison's tech. "Also- no fingerprints here either."

He makes no mention of what skills he brings to the table.

The detective smiles and nods. "There are. But you might want to see the scene first. I'm working on getting security footage now." He motions for the heroes to follow him. "Let's head upstairs." He leads the group up to the second floor and into a mostly charred apartment. The floor seems to be pretty stable. In the next room, in the kitchen, is a body on the floor.

Ember(#2791TOn)

A male whose face-down body is currently smoldering. There's a dark outline of charred tile flooring around his corpse, which has an approximate three inch diameter hole through the torso.

Carpenter motions to the body, "We believe that this is Charles Williams, AKA Ember." He checks his PDA, "A fairly long rap sheet. He recently served a five years stretch in prison. Was a model prisoner. He was released only two weeks ago."

Following, Allison shrugs. Her tech is as much a part of her as anything else. She doesn't -possess- the tech. She merely -is- her tech. She eyes the body and inclines her head... her database of medical knowledge loading in her mind. Her concern now involves... how the victim was killed, etc. All of those interesting CSI questions that her player doesn't know to ask.

"So, how was he--" Nexus begins, then defers to Allison's far-better-informed questioning. "What she said."

How oh how did Grimm end up vouching for Daemon? She knows this is going to be trouble. She holds out her hand. "I'll take gloves, just in case. Guess I'm one of the more normal people here," she smirks and laughs at the irony as she looks over the body. "Any known associations or ex-partners that may have wanted him dead?"

Carpenter crouches, pointing out the hole through Ember's torso, "Hopefully you all have strong stomachs. It looks like something large and perhaps pointy was driven through his chest." He motions to the wall, where there is a weird burn splotch pattern, "I suspect part of his...well, flaming body hit the wall."

Lady Winters takes in the sight impassively. "Detective, you said he was known as Ember. Does that mean he has fire related powers? In which case, could the fire have been the result of his own powers being released uncontrollably when he was killed? If the pattern of fire damage consistent with that?"

The detective nods to Lady Winters, "That's my suspicion. He has...had...fire powers. There was no sign of forced entry, so I'm guessing he knew his attacker. He likely turned on his powers as a reflex. And when he fell over, the place caught fire." He looks over to Grimm, "He has several known associates. Let me check my list..."

Carpenter pulls up the entry on his PDA again, "About ten years ago, he was part of a group called the 'Phantom Legion', led by a mystic villain called unsurprisingly, The Phantom. Phantom's wife was also part of the team. A sorceress named Amaryllis. Rounding out the team were Ember, a light-based meta named Jaeger, and a shapeshifting android named Proteus."

Nexus takes out his own PDA and calls up his searchbot code, parametrizing it to search for Amber's life history and personal details, following along with the detective's explanations.

Daemon does much the same as Nexus, using his own built-in connection to the web.

He stands near Grimm- but just behind her. He'll leave this medical mess to her expertise.

Grimm crouches close to the body, but doesn't touch it as she expects the wound to try and figure out what sort of weapon or power may have caused it. "That's a big hole," she mutters. At the mention of a sorceress, she tries to get a feel for any magic or supernatural energy in the area.

Grimm rubs the back of her head as she gets some interference from other energies in the area, putting on her grumpy face. Daemon knows that face all too well. "Hrmm. Well, something else magical is here, I just can't get a clean read on it. Could be an item he has. Could be the sorceress."

With most others swarming the body, Quiet looks at the structure. She can patch people up pretty well, but she's not a medical examiner. Neither is she a structural engineer, but she is fairly decent at demolishing them, so some of the concepts might apply.

"If anyone desires or needs computer support.. feel free to speak your search criteria aloud." says a male voice as a small hologram of Julius's usual head appearance forms over Allison's left shoulder. "I have access to the Federal Crime Database, and Starguard Networks if the need arises." adds the voice.

Allison herself turns her eyes towards Julius's holo-form and shrugs, "He does like to be helpful." she adds before bending to inspect the body meticulously.

Grimm glances up at Daemon expectantly. She then looks down at her phone and texts him privately: <>

Nexus looks up from his phone. "What was this room, before the building burned down?"

Carpenter taps his temple, "This guy seemed like a nice sort, for a villain. Turned over a new leaf. Hmm."

Daemon responds with a thought, <>

Daemon agrees with Carpenter. "I didn't want to go that far- but what I'm seeing doesn't discount that."

Lady Winters sighs, "I knew him. I knew Ember. He was determined to go straight, as it's called. A falling out with his previous criminal colleagues may be the reason for this. I hope whoever did this can be found. Ember deserved far better than this."

"Everyone deserves a chance at redemption." says Ally softly. She shakes her head and adds, "I need to inspect the wound under more... controlled circumstances. Perhaps some material from the weapon might be remaining in the wound."

Julius will be bringing up holo displays of the data others are speaking aloud. Ember's criminal record, his release, and other records about his past... before and after his incarceration.

"Injury looks physical. There's something in the wound. Looks like melted or liquid metal?" Gabrielle murmurs as she peers closer. Forensic classes have helped her get over being too squeamish with bodies she doesn't know. "Maybe fits the morphing android? Plus with the weird magical feel, maybe his old team didn't like him refusing to return to the fold."

Gabrielle frowns a bit and looks around. "Maybe there's some other motivation, though," she murmurs as she studies the burnt room.

Lady Winters says, "Ember told me once that his powers were enhanced by magic. It might be that the magic someone detected was natural to him."

Grimm reads her text. "Detective, Ember's wife still lives in town. Maybe she knows something about this? Or could be in danger. Can your men look up her current address and send a cruiser over to check on her?"

Carpenter checks his records, "There was an amulet that was taken as evidence when he was arrested. Perhaps that's it? It was checked out as a personal effect when he was released."

Inclining her head, Allison looks more closely. "Metal?" she asks. "It could be liquefied by the heat of his powers, or it could be something more sinister than that." And she looks more closely. "I'd need a lab for a full analysis...." and her voice trails off. "Hrmm... from the properties, the head effects.. I would say that this is something ferrous. Steel? Titanium?" And she narrows her eyes, "Looks like an alloy of that and something I am not sure about. Perhaps.." she eyes Nicky and lifts a brow, "Perhaps something to interfere with magic?"

Carpenter nods to Grimm, "I'll have a car sent over to her place to check on her."

Snow stays mostly quiet and in the background, watching and listening. She might come up with a decent hypothesis but she needs more information. So she just listens and watches.

Nexus looks up from his browsing. "Tell me the address, I'll take a look from here."

Grimm looks back down at the body. "Could be, Detective. I'd have to take a look at the amulet, maybe spend more time focusing to get a better read off of it."

Lady Winters shrugs, "I'm a vampire not a mage. Sorry, I wouldn't have any idea." she tells Allison.

Carpenter raises a brow at Nexus, "That's kind of borderline illegal, depending. But her life could be at stake." He shows the address to Nexus.

Nexus nods, agreeing with both sentiments, and opens a viewing portal to the address. If what he sees isn't profoundly embarrassing he expands the portal so everyone can see it.

Through the portal, everyone can see a young woman watching television while she knits something. A scarf, maybe? No signs of anyone in danger as of yet.

Grimm watches the woman. "Can you check outside?" she asks, then looks back to the body, trying to piece together more details.

"Julius. Can you give me an overhead view there? Maybe check for signal traffic in the area? I'm less interested in her knitting, than in anyone who may be approaching her home." suggests Allison as she continues to inspect the wound. "I would very much like to examine a sample of this." she tells the detective.

The outside of the home looks...pretty normal. Well, aside from the police car pulling up just outside. There's a mail carrier just leaving the porch as well, who nods to the two officers on their way to the door.

Carpenter nods to Allison, "Go ahead and take a small sample. As long as we get some too for testing."

Nodding, Allison asks Grimm. "Did you bring any evidence bags? Perhaps a scalpel?" she asks. "Afraid I was not prepared for a forensic investigation." she admits with a shrug.

Carpenter provides both for Allison, "We came prepared."

Lady Winters goes over to Nexus, "Can you keep watching? Those police officers got there surprisingly fast, didn't they?" she says

Nexus nods. "Can do." He keeps the portal where it is.

At the other location on the east side, the woman heads to the door and lets the officers in. Both officers remove their hats as they step inside and look around.

A very tall robed figure carrying a bulging messenger bag wanders up to the police car/fire engines outside of the building but stops a dozen or so feet away. The figure looks up at the building with what is probably curiosity given the veiling concealing its face.

Smiling to Carpenter, Allison takes her time and reaches in to select a small sample of the metal as well as the tissue around it. "Please log my sample so that other investigators do not perceive this as something else to investigate." she offers as she works.

Julius however, keeps up an overhead view. Also on his own initiative, he looks for the police car number on transponder, or perhaps just visually on the car. "It seems there is another visitor present." he states.

Grimm glances up at Allison and raises a brow. "I wasn't officially on duty with Starguard, so I don't have any bags."

Nexus adds to Allison "Can your AI get security footage of this room before the fire?" After a pause he adds to the detective "Or, um, you know, your department? No offense, just not used to doing this stuff _with_ the police."

On the east side, the woman says, "Charles stopped by. I've only seen him a couple of times since he got out. It's been...slightly awkward. He wanted to take things slow."

Nexus nods at the news of privacy considerations, somewhat relieved by the fact. "How about the hallway outside?" he asks, while listening to the eavesdropped-on discussion

On the east side, an officer says, "We'd like to step up a protective detail, just in case. We think you might be in danger, after what happened with your husband." Clearly the heroes missed a piece of the conversation, but there doesn't seem to be anything unexpected, either.

Carpenter nods, "I do have some footage of the entry to the building, at least." He uses his PDA to project the footage on the wall: About a half hour before the fire, there's a food delivery person who heads inside and heads upstairs to an upper floor. Pizza, it looks like. It appears a couple more tenants walk in and out as well, also coming and going from the upper floor. A couple of college students, from the look of it. One male, one female. The delivery man leaves after fifteen minutes, with no pizza boxes in hand.

The robed figure pauses for a long moment outside the building then reaches into the its messenger bag to pull out a PDA. As it dials a number, its head turns back and forth as if scanning. The number it dials is marked in contacts as 'C. W.'

Nexus smiles and suggests "Not to violate anyone's civil rights or anything, but can we get a facial recognition run on the pizza guy and the college students?"

Daemon taps the chin of his helmet as he tries to put these different facts together and sort them into a cohesive narrative of what may have happened.

He seems to stop moving as C.W. is typed in. He checks his records for known associates of Ember who have these initials.

Carpenter replies to Nexus, "The students I was able to find records for from CBSU. Jenna Barron and Norman Ides."

"Neither matches the initials of the recipient of the messages that Robed guy was sending." Daemon says aloud.

Carpenter adds, "No hits for the other guy, as of yet."

Nexus is looking something up on his PDA when it chimes. He smiles broadly and answers. "This is Cale." Then he puts the phone down. "Wait, what? The pizza guy doesn't have a matching employee record?" Then he picks it back up. "What's up?"

The robed figure's murmurs something into the PDA.

Over the PDa, he says, "Hello Cale. I feel what seems energy signature of yours. Am outside building wih fire and police people moving around. You are OK?"" Dialydd's tone sounds concerned.

Carpenter shakes his head, "No...there's no hit in databases for his face. That's different than the company having an employee record. We'll need to check with the business."

Carpenter places a call to the pizza delivery company. After a couple of minutes of private conversation, he returns. "Well, I think that's our culprit. No deliveries were scheduled here."

Nexus grins. "I am great," he purrs into the phone. "We're investigating a murder. Wanna join us?" Then he nods to Carpenter. "Got it. So let's confirm he really was a pizza boy, shall we? No, not you, Dialydd," he says into the phone, "I was talking to -- oh, hell. Hold on." He hangs up the phone, closes the viewing portal, remote-views the general area, spots Dialydd, opens a teleport portal, and starts poking on his phone -- then stops at Carpenter's announcement. "Right. OK, then. Can we look at that guy again?"

"15 minutes is a long time to drop off pizzas," Gabrielle mutters. "How long after he left did the fire spread?"

Daemon's helmeted head suddenly starts turning this way and that as he scans the room- looking for remnants of the pizza boxes that were clearly carried in.

"You're right- that's a long time. Its a long time for a hit for that matter- this was personal." Daemon says out loud. He has no direct evidence of it- but its a gut feeling.

Dialydd looks over as the teleport portal opens not far from himself. Without waiting to hear from Caleb, he walks over and through the portal ending up standing next to Cale. The robed figure nods to Nexus as he places his PDA back into his messenger bag. His gaze then takes in the sight of the dead body, the various metas and officials in the room, and then returns to the dead body. He tilts his head to one side as he gaze at the dead man.

Carpenter brings up the picture of the delivery guy again. "The fire started about 15 minutes after he left, according to the time stamp. There's no audio, sadly."

The delivery guy looks...non-descript. A white male, perhaps in his early 20s. Wearing a t-shirt, jeans and a baseball cap for the Washington DC team.

Nexus gives Dialydd a one-armed shoulder hug and closes the teleport portal. Then he reopens the viewing portal to Mrs. Ember's apartment, just because. "I forget," he says to the detective, "is accessing traffic cams to see where that car went after it left here legal?"

Dialydd tries to stay out of people's way as he gets a feel for the situation. He, however seem to watch and listen attentively to all giong on around him.

Grimm review the footage a little longer, then suddenly looks like she has an idea. Looking to Daemon once with a fixed look, she quickly walks out of the burned out apartment without another word to check on something. Shoving her hands in her pockets, she heads for the last spot the pizza man was spotted on the footage and stares at the ground intently. After searching for...something there, she starts to follow a certain path.

Not being one to leave his partner behind, Daemon chases after her- turning invisible as he rounds the corner out of the apartment.

Dialydd looks to Caleb and gestures to the departing figures.

Carpenter calls after Grimm, "Where are you going?"

"I think I may be able to pick up a trail on that Pizza guy. But I don't think I'll get too far in this part of town. I'm just checking it out," Gabrielle calls back.

Nexus shrugs to Dialydd, lacking any clue beyond her own explanation, but follows Grimm out of sheer curiosity.

Dialydd follows Nexus like a black robed 6'8" puppy.

Lady Winters has nothing better to do than follow Nexus.

The trail leads Grimm to where a car likely was. Even though the shadow changes shape at least once during the walk, she manages to stay on track anyway. The car itself, headed northward toward the edges of the city, through the Harrisburg district. It's likely no small coincidence that there are fewer traffic cameras there. The trail eventually becomes cold, but two things are clear: One is that hte delivery person might look like something or someone else than they did in the footage. Second, the vehicle used was likely a hover vehicle. Perhaps a van, after cross referencing with traffic cameras.

Nexus turns to Lady Winters. "Maybe some of the Watch saw something, do you think?"

Lady Winters nods, "Yes. There aren't many hover vehicles passing through Harrisburg. I'm sure at least some of the Watch will have spotted and noted its passing.