Investigate Patents and PurchasesKing and Jack play 'desktective' for the first half of the investigation - filling out emails and forms to get an official inventory of the surprisingly large number of items on Morgan's list. No new relevant patents have been filed, if it is something related to corporate espionage they'll either need more time to develop things or have kept things hidden. Of the inventory most equipment has going to reputable buyers with receipts on both ends or in small enough quantities that it is unlikely to be the culprit making the purchase... However King took note that one supposed buyer "Jaguar Genetics and Research" had purchased items from multiple categories on the list. They're the main suspect if it comes down to utilizing the stolen research.
Further investigation into the company shows that they had apparently gone bankrupt and dissolved in the last year. Their assets have been sold off to cover their debts - there should be nothing left of the company in the first place. With the new lead, the pair put on their gear and move to investigate the location of the deliveries.
Hitting the streets early in the morning, our officers find a surprisingly empty area in the commercial district. Then the roof of their patrol car caves in from a large impact spreading bulletproof glass everywhere. As expected of veteran officers, both manage to leap out the now-open windows and draw their guns as a pair of metallic claws works on tearing apart their previous location. On top of their now-totaled vehicle was what appeared to be a large black cat on steroids. Someone more zoologically inclined might call it a panther...on steroids. Its muscles where larger than any specimen you'd find at the local zoo thrice over. It had what can be described as "augmentations" on its head, paws, and mouth. Its claws and teeth where gleaming metal with a strange "headband" around its forehead. A camera was centered in the center of said headband with two earbud-like-contraptions in its ears.
Wasting no time shouting a warning to a beast, both officers open fire with their glocks striking it from both sides. It lets out a scream-like roar and collapses from the double-mag-dump, lying in the wreckage of the car like it was always a part of it. It is soon replaced by two new threats as our officers dash for cover while reloading - a striped Tiger and an unstriped Cougar launching a second ambush from nearby hiding places. King manages to respond with a few pot-shots while Jack calls for backup using the car as cover. In response to enemy fire, the cats dive for cover as if learning from their companion's mistake. They circle around our officers looking for an opening - leaping in and behind cover as they do so (breaking quite a few windows in the process). Our officers refuse to give them any such opening - taking turns tracking each target and offering suppressive fire whenever they get their own chance. By the time the big cats retreated, most of the surrounding buildings had been filled top to bottom with claw marks and bullet holes. Jack had run dry on ammunition and King was nearly there himself.
Somehow still breathing, the Panther was taken into custody and is currently hospitalized in stable condition. We will be able to perform investigative testing after the hospital determines its degree of sentience, the less sentient the creature is the more invasive testing will be allowed.
Now finally capable of investigating the building, our officers find nothing. Completely cleared out. No water, no power. None of the nearby buildings have any security footage, but those a block away show the shipment arriving and a U-Haul leaving from this direction. At the wheel was a white-haired old man with a well kept mustache. Facial recognition suggests he was once a researcher at Jaguar, and our current prime suspect for the case. Finding and arresting him is likely to be the next step of this operation.
Investigate ComiconAbyss had determined his normal outfit was already outlandish enough - but Queen managed to nudge him into picking out a costume from a different cloaked Super Hero to prevent him from being recognized if the culprit saw him during the amusement park investigation. Queen herself had considered dressing up as said hero's partner just for consistency but decided against it given she wouldn't be able to reasonably bring her equipment along in such an outfit. Instead she dressed as the same hero allowing her to hide all her equipment under her own cloak. This way she can switch into her police gear simply by removing the cloak reverse-superman style.
Most of their Investigation was rather uneventful. Cloak and Cloak's cosplay was cheap enough that it attracted little attention. The drone was a bit more conspicuous, despite being rather small it caught a few eyes. Most treated it as one of the security cameras already in the area - possibly including the suspect. Some of the sensors are capable of telling our field workers (and the Cheif now linked in with the drones) who among the crowd has abilities. This usually does more to remove possible suspects than it does to find the culprit. It is very rare for someone to have multiple powers, and even more rare that those powers are completely unrelated. Our sensor can tell us if someone's body temperature is abnormal for example. Someone with fire powers will typically have a body temperature significantly higher than average, someone with ice powers could have a significantly lower body temperature, someone using a lot of energy to power their powers would also likely have a higher body temperature. Meanwhile our main suspects are those who fit the culprit's suspected profile: A cosplayer with a face mask and powers.
That profile fits many of the Comicon fans. With plenty of block-buster Superhero moves in the past decade, "Masked Hero" is in style. Civilians with interesting powers tend to complete the look by going with a Superhero they can emulate to some degree. Everyone wants to show off cool things about themselves after-all. It is one of the times you're allowed to showoff without looking like a showoff - someone doing loop-the-loops through the air on the way to work just makes you roll your eyes. Fortunately that tendency removes plenty of potential suspects from the pool as they're more than happy to demonstrate their very not-life-sucking abilities for all to see. Thus most of the day was spent with Abyss wandering around keeping an eye on masked supers while making a mental checklist of who has been hanging around without showing off any ability (and occasionally making conversation in attempt to get people to use their powers, getting asked the same many times himself) while Queen patrols the air noting any abnormalities.
Prime-time came and went without any incident. People started funneling out and the crowds thinned. Most of the potential suspects left where wearing a certain bat-themed hero's outfit. He is a common pick for AJ's, as someone who can beat down super-powered beings without any powers themselves. It is hard to confirm weather or not someone is an AJ if they don't use their power, so they where mostly stuck watching probably AJ's for as long as they stuck around. One particular potential suspect spent the better part of the day behind a bar-stool without removing his mask.
Happy hour was announced as the convention was winding down for the night. Our officers where just about to turn in for the day when the barfly started leaving the now-crowded bar. Queen looked at the interface and noticed a signal coming from said man...and those around him began collapsing as a group. She shouted a warning to Abyss (currently keeping an eye on more sober-targets) just as the effect radius was about to reach him. As he turns around every shadow in the building begins to stretch towards his target-gathering into a ball of blackness around his face. He stumbles momentarily before panicking, trying to move as fast as he can in a random direction. Noting that the strange signal was gone Queen ends this escape attempt with a clean tackle.
The man, later identified as Nathaniel Harland, immediately admitted guilt in custody. When asked for the purpose behind these strange attacks, he explained that his motive was to help his younger brother. His own ability was to steal something he calls "life force" from other people, with the side effect of being able to give a small part of his own to someone else if he is "totally full". His brother has the opposite ability, he was capable of giving his own "life force" to others and could only steal if he was "tapped out". While this ability was unable to cure illness on its own it was capable of making those going through an illness strong enough to survive it. Nathaniel's brother had become a doctor to best make use of his ability, sharing his life force to allow his patients a better chance at life. According to him this ended up being his undoing - he shared so much of his life energy left that there was none left for himself - having feared that being able to give it away and not doing so would lead to someone's death. He is now stuck in a permanent state much like the fainting victims. In order to revive him, Nathaniel would need a significant amount of life energy. The way he puts it is to think about a bunch of cups. His brother's cup is empty, and his cup is half-full. He can't tip his own cup, but he can tip other cups into his. He can then tip so many cups into his own that it overflows into his brother's cup...but this leads to an incredibly inefficient energy transfer, so he has to tip a lot of cups to bring his brother up to half-full. He insists he chose his targets to avoid any long-term harm to any one of them, stating that his brother would never forgive him if he permanently harmed anyone to save him. He is currently incarcerated and awaiting sentencing.
The fainting victims had all revived by morning. A few report particularly bad hangovers, but they otherwise seem to have made a full recovery.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! CASE CLEARED!
PatrolA welfare checks prevented a "I've fallen and I can't get up" situation with an old granny in an apartment complex, Gloria managed to disable the get-away car of a robber using her abilities (read: she popped their tires), and they managed to be on-scene for the car-jacker's next heist where he ripped open an armored vehicle and helped himself to all the cash within. He was forced to drop his grab-bag, but was capable of using his super strength to evade pursuers. He blocked off the road by placing parked cars in the way as we arrived, escaping on foot. Ace pursued with the drone, chasing him in a zig-zag pattern ducking through buildings and alleyways. He had dropped the bag to add a vertical aspect to the race - using both hands with his super-strength to climb up the buildings. Jack had been maintaining low-altitude chase to follow the target though the buildings he entered while Gloria attempted to cut him off, but he was ultimately able to go above the drone's camera and used the brief moment out of its eye to escape. We now have his data from the drone and fingerprints on the bag.
The patrol team was also called for backup in the Jaguar case, providing assistance in arresting the target. Reports of butterfly thefts continue, but they have fallen to their previous amounts. Attempts to scan the calling card with our drones note they have a higher-than-ambient temperature but no fingerprints or traces of DNA. One store noted that he was having a particularly slow day, the culprit is likely on his security cameras if he ever entered the building.
~~~~~~
Its once again time for
Restructuring and Hiring! A couple of fresh faces just graduated the academy, and a few vigilantes decided to go for the badge. Now we just have to decide was Precinct gets what. It'll be a bit harder to grab some people than last time now that we're more established, we'll probably have
300 points to spend based on the same criteria as last time. With the cases piling up we could use the extra hands around here.
AJ: 100 Points Per Man
SK: "Jet" (Wind Manipulation) 300 Points
SK: "DJ" ("Compelling" Music) 300 Points
SK: "Dart" (Super-speed) 300 Points
SK: "Skjaldmær" (Forcefeild Projection) 300 Points
H: "Morgan" (Super-intelligent gadgeteer/engineer)(Team Cohesion)
SK: "Gloria" (Telekinetic) (Team Cohesion)
SK: "Abyss" (Controls Darkness) (Team Cohesion)
AJ: "Jack" (Team Cohesion)
AJ: "King" (Team Cohesion)
AJ: "Ace" (Team Cohesion)
AJ: "Queen" (Team Cohesion)
EB-1 Prototype Drones (X3) and Server: Simple, cheap surveillance drones capable of collecting various data in real time.
Biolab Break-in:
Clawed, Power User capable of manipulating data at a distance, Capable of entering a building leaving only minor marks. Unknown Motive. "Fingerprints" logged. Apparently has minions in the form of large cats with metal teeth and claws. Potential suspect IDed.
Butterfly Thief:
No Data. Suspected power user. Potential lead in security footage.
Car Jacker:
Target is large-built male outside of human norm. Culprit has super strength. Culprit has been scanned by drone. Fingerprints logged.
Author
Topic: Precinct 4 (Superhero Management SG) (Read 9110 times)