Log:Proteus and Ember, Scene 4

Proteus and Ember 2016/09/06 	 Night Marshal|Detective Carpenter Natasha Aqua Ellbeth Daemon

4

A beach house, about 10 miles south of Colonial Bay, looking out onto a small inlet. There are tall grasses between the house and the beach proper. A small sailboat is tied up at a dock in the water. The house itself is a simple two-story structure, likely without a basement. The walls are wooden and the exterior is painted a light yellow.

The former villain Ember was found murdered in his apartment, stabbed through the chest by something metal. His powers lashed out uncontrollably, setting the building on fire...and bringing the incident to the attention of the CBPD, specifically Detective Carpenter. He called in some local heroes to help deal with the situation, knowing he was likely outgunned if he came across the killer.

Suspects included the man's former associates: Phantom (A mage, now deceased), Amaryllis (Sorceress and wife of Phantom), Jaeger (Light based powers, now theoretically on the straight and narrow and a lawyer), and Proteus (A shapeshifting android). As the victim was seen the next day after his death on camera accessing a safety deposit box, the last seemed like the most likely culprit.

It was also guessed that Proteus was looking for a magical amulet that boosted Ember's powers while he was an active villain. The amulet has yet to turn up. But when the heroes went to check the beachhouse that Ember and his wife Maisie jointly own, Proteus was spotted on sight and beaten in a fight.

Proteus collapses to the ground, still in the shape of Ellbeth, but with one forearm in the form of a long silvery blade.

Ellbeth looks over the unconscious, so to speak, form of Proteus. "I'm not sure," she says speculatively, "whether I can access its memories. Machine minds are very different from human." She glances at the detective. "There's also the question of legality..?"

Natasha goes and perches triumphantly on Proteus. Just because.

Carpenter holsters his pistol, "It wouldn't necessarily be admissible as evidence. That's an open question for the courts, I believe."

Ellbeth pulls out her PDA and snaps a shot of the posing Natasha.

Ellbeth then turns to Detective Carpenter, "I remain un-convinced that a android, a mechanism, would be seeking to acquire a magical amulet for itself." she points out.

Natasha is pretty sure that she can access Proteus's memories. Just not in a way that would leave them very readable. :)

The detective nods, "I agree. But even if its goal is to assist someone else, that doesn't mean it was ordered to do this, either."

Aqua finds her way to the scene just after the fight ended, having spotted it from afar. She comes in flying, her flexible and positionable ears middled out as she touches down near the group. "Hey there, er, what's up?" Aqua looks between Proteus, and the heroes gathered.

Natasha adjusts her pose on Proteus for Aqua to see.

Carpenter looks to Aqua while he pulls out his PDA. "Just apprehended a suspected murderer. Though the motive is still in question." He then makes a quick call to the CBPD to get someone out to pick up the suspect.

Natasha flies back over to the house! Where the interesting-smelling thing presumably still is.

Ellbeth smiles at the newcomer. .oO(Can always take her down later if we need to.)Oo. "Hi. I'm Ellbeth Wryd. This," she points as she makes introductions, "is Dectective Carpenter. And the wonderfully colorful dragon is called Natasha. The quite spidery guy in named Daemon I believe."

Carpenter finishes up with his call. "Let's make sure he's taken into custody before we head into the building. It should only be a couple of minutes."

Daemon nods to Aqua as he squats down to examine the downed android.

His internal systems are already at work trying to find out more information about the downed droid- and most importantly; if there is a way to hack the android's systems to gather some information about just who it is that sent it or at least what brought it here today.

He places his gauntleted hand on the fake Ellbeth's forehead.

He says, "Nice to meet you." Now whether he was talking to Aqua or the droid is anyone's guess.

Natasha lies down at door, head on forefeet, looking bored.

Ellbeth gestures to Natasha and indicates flying up"Could you keep an eye on the back of the house, Natasha? So nobody can sneak off unseen."

"I'm Aqua Zephyr the 14th", Aqua smiles, perking her ears up towards the group as everyone's introduce. But her ears middle out while eyes go towards the baby dragon when she flies off over to the house. She shakes her head a little, before before going to Carpenter. "Nice to meet you too." Aqua smiles, perking her ears up. "And you guys are heading into that house?" She asks, gesturing towards the house Natasha is guarding.

Natasha nods and flies up and guards the back of the house! She's a good guarddragon. She does it all the time at Lucky Finds.

Carpenter nods, "Nice to meet you. I'm assuming you're part of the Undermoon contingent?" Sirens can be heard in thte distance. In fact a police hovervan can be seen crossing a bridge tto the north.

"No, actually." Aqua says, "I've never been there, but I heard of 'em once or twice. They're another sort of fae that live here, right? Usually taller than me." Aqua folds her wings in behind herself, no need to keep them out stretched when she isn't using them. "I come from a long line of fairies like myself. About one in every generation is born, usually the first daughter. The rest of us are human."

Ellbeth grins as Aqua speaks, "Let me guess. A long line fourteen deep, right?"

Natasha flies back and forth at the back of the house. Guarding. Guarding isn't such a fun game when played like this though.

"Yep. The fairies get named 'Aqua'." Aqua says to Ellbeth, giggling a little. "Mind, I wasn't born looking like this, usually I'm just a human with pointed ears and a small frame. I'm just stronger like this. Using magic while in my human form is er, a little hard right now."

The police van pulls up to the house and the detective waves it down. The metahuman containment team gets out and speaks with Carpenter.

Natasha guards the back of the house from insects, since there's nothing moe fun to guard it from! Flies and mosquitos go down in flames.

The containment team carefully moves Proteus into the van, and they drive off with the sirens blaring. Carpenter turns back to the others, "Time to head inside. I already have a warrant. Please don't break anything."

Natasha quickly flies back to the door! Having heard the detecting with her sharp hearing.

"Anythin' we're lookin' for specifically?" Aqua asks Carpenter, middling out her ears, and looking towards the house.

"Damn." Daemon says standing up. For those paying attention- tendrils of webbing are connected from his palm to the androids head.

When he pulls his hands away, the nanites the webbing is made of begin cannibalizing themselves so as to not leave any evidence of Daemon behind.

"I've got nothing. I'd need a lab or something to crack this tincan- and even then, it'd probably take me some time." He says as he looks to Detective Carpenter in time for the Meta Containment Crew to remove him.

He nods as he turns to head inside the house.

Natasha knows what she's looking for. She's going to follow than nice magic smell to the source!

Ellbeth nods, and starts heading towards the house. When she gets close enough she casts a blink spell to teleport just inside the front door. Assuming she isn't stuck down by some hostile act she attempts to open the door the the rest of the group.

Natasha scampers into the house, sniffing all the way!

Ellbeth doesn't have any difficulty inside. Nothing attacks her,a nd she manages to get the door open. Carpenter smiles, "Thank you." He looks at his warrant, "We're only here for the amulet as evidence."

Natasha leaps up the stairs to a bedroom and disappears under a bed.

"Amulet?" Aqua asks Ellbeth. Figuring maybe it's magic-related (She hasn't ever heard someone call a phone or piece of technology an 'amulet', after all), she tries to detect things with her own sense of magic while she follows the group.

Natasha curls up round the box, eyes half open, in a dragony guard pose.

Ellbeth nods, "Yes, Aqua. We're looking for a magical amulet that was used by a deceased villain to enhance his powers. It may be in this house."

Carpenter see Natasha run upstairs, and he makes his way up there as well. "Someone was in the building not too long ago, at least. There's little dust."

Natasha breathes out some copper-orange smoke to indicate where she is, since she seems to have lost the others.

Daemon enters the house, nodding to Ellbeth.

Without saying a word, he moves towards the kitchen. Why? Because this is a beach house and there are no records of any internet connection to the building.

In the kitchen he begins opening drawers and cabinets- hoping to run across anything that seems out of place.

He's pretty thorough as he opens tea boxes, shakes ceral boxes & moves china.

Aqua can't feel anything with her sense of magic. She frowns a little, lowering her ears. She's still a little new to this, so she's, perhaps, not the best at these things. Still, she heads up towards where Natasha scampered off to, maybe the dragon smelled out the box or something?

Aqua pops under the bed as well once she sees the copper-orange smoke of the dragon. "Found it?" Aqua asks, looking towards the box the guard dragon is, er, guarding.

Natasha nods. Well, she's not sure it's *the* think but it smells of a different magic than found elsewhere in the house, anyway. She eyes Aqua.

Carpenter takes a look at Natasha, "So, what did you find?" He considers the lock box that the dragon is guarding. "Seems promising."

Ellbeth follows her senses and, surprise, finds herself in the room where Natasha and Aqua are. "Detective, Daemon, I believe Natasha and Aqua have found something up here." she calls out.

Aqua goes to grab the box, and get it from out from under the bed. The first thing she does upon getting a good look at it to see if she can identify any magical symbols or such that it might bare, if there any, anyway. Best to check before just randomly trying to open unknown magical things

Natasha snaps her mouth at Aqua at this unannounced grab for *her* treasure!

Carpenter says to Natasha, "Mind if we take a look at that box?"

Aqua's body vaporizes into mist when suddenly Natasha snaps at her. The mist travels back into open space, and reforms into Aqua. Aqua just looks confused, and decides she doesn't want to try to go near the snapping dragon again.

"Oh- good." Daemon says as Ellbeth announces the find upstairs.

Daemon heads upstairs to join the others.

Natasha reluctantly agrees and unwinds from the box, letting the detective handle it, though always keeping an eye on the box. The other eye tracks Aqua suspiciously.

Carpenter tries opening the box, and finds it locked. "Hmm...give me a second." He pulls out a small kit from his coat.

Ellbeth looks at Natasha and Aqua, "Be friends." she says affectionately.

Natasha extends a claw toward the box, as a suggestion.

Carpenter picks out a small lockpick from the kit, and he pops open the lock with a little difficulty. "Enh. Almost broke the tool." He puts the lockpick kit back in his jacket.

Aqua hmphs towards the dragon, crossing her arms, and relaxing her folded wings so they just sorta hang behind her instead of being folded up neatly. But then any childish spite she feels is alleviated when the box is opened. She glances towards the box, trying to see what's inside of it without going near the snapping dragon.

Inside the box...is an item wrapped in cloth. Sure enough, when it's unwrapped, it's a round amulet, about three inches in diameter. Carpenter smiles. "Looks like this might be the real deal."

Daemon curses his short stature as he tries to get a good look inside the box. Standing at the rear of the assembled parties was probably not the best place to be.

With a quick hop and flip- he reorients himself on the ceiling to look inside the box from above.

"Doesn't look like much to me..." He mumbles quietly.

Natasha flies up so she can look more clearly.

Carpenter keeps the amulet on the cloth, making sure to not touch it with his bare skin. He holds it up for the others to see.

Aqua looks towards the amulet, looking for any signs or markings on it to denote just what it might do, since she can't really sense it right now.

Natasha stares at the amulet greedily. She can see the worth even if the others don't.

Aqua stares at the amulet. Alas, all of those days dozing off instead of learning about magic are catching up to her. She ponders the amulet, before looking to Carpenter, and asking, "Do you have any idea what this thing does?"

Carpenter wraps it back up and puts it back in the box. "It's currently believed that it amplified Ember's powers. The only question is...why was Proteus hunting for it?"

Natasha tears her eyes away, resisting the temptation to snatch it from the detectives hands and fly off with it. She goes back under the bed so she won't be tempted to look again. She remembers how upset Amy was when she ate her magic coin....

Aqua eyes Natasha, then looks towards Carpenter and shrugs. "Maybe for someone else? Maybe it'd just be valuable on the black market? I dunno. Any thoughts on what you'll do with it?"

Carpenter nods, "Well, it's evidence, first most. But after that, it's owned by Ember. So, we'll need to check his will. I suspect it'll revert to his wife."

"Perhaps the amulet works on other people- not just Ember?" Daemon says from above. So far he's been quiet- but this is well outside his wheelhouse.

Carpenter nods, "Quite possible. Since Phantom's out of the picture, it makes sense that Amaryllis might be looking for it. The only question is...was Proteus acting on her behalf? Or on its own?"

The detective stands back up with the box under his arm, "Any thoughts on that? I'm guessing none of you have dealt with this group before?"

Natasha offers no opinion. She mopes under the bed, trying not to think about the amulet.

Aqua shakes her head. "I've never even heard of 'em before, honestly. Let alone having dealt with 'em. My best guess is that he was probably paid by someone or wanted to sell the thing, but it's only a guess. Or maybe he was promised something as a reward to grab this, or maybe he just wanted the power to himself. But most of those ideas end with 'It benefits someone else more than him'"

"Nope- never heard of these guys before. You'd think I would have with our corpse's wrap sheet." Daemon says as he rubs his masked chin.

"Too bad Meta Containment already took him into custody. Maybe we should have bugged Proteus & let him think he got away." He adds as he contemplates what their next move should be. That wasn't really directed at anyone, he is just thinking out loud.

'I hate magic.' He thinks to himself.

He looks down to Aqua and says, "Well it is a robot- that actually makes sense. Androids are rarely concerned with their own needs- its always about their Terminal Value."

Carpenter raises a brow, "The thing is a stone cold killer. I'm not about to let it run around, even with a bug on it."

"It'd be great if we could know more about the amulet." Aqua says, looking towards the box. "It'd probably give us some sort of hint as to who would want this sort of thing, and why."

Carpenter nods. "That, and perhaps we can get Proteus to talk. Though I suspect that will be difficult."

Ellbeth has been quiet for a while. "I could probably find out about the amulet if you could give me custody of it for a while, Detective." she says suddenly.

Natasha mopes. She wants custody.

Carpenter shakes his head, "I'm afraid I can't. But you can look at it at the station later."

Dialydd listens while the others speak, attentive but quiet.

Natasha briefly considers a trip to the police station later. But that's probably a bad idea too.

It's Aqua's turn to be quiet now. Maybe it's then that she takes notices of Dialydd, and looks at the incredibly handsome not-quite-human male. The beauty is blinding! She might need an eye examine after this. Though others might just call this action 'staring'.

Carpenter smiles. "Just give me a call down at the station tomorrow morning, and I'll let you take a look at it. That's already a little more than I'm supposed to do, given the situation."

It'a Aqua's turn to be quiet now. Instead, she looks towards the robed man, middling out her ears as she regards him curiously, and then gives a shrug, turning back towards Carpenter and Ell.

Ellbeth is likewise rather stunned by Dialydd's sensuality.