The Dead Savant

DeletedUser13682

Well, this seemed to be an entertaining group he had been thrown in with, filled with very colorful people that seemed to not be very adept at social interactions. To prove his point, the next person who entered the room deigned to not even greet himself, instead deciding to sit down at the table and read some papers. One of the men, one wearing a business suit, decided he was fed up with this awkwardness and fled the room. “Well, I hope to help this little group along any way I can. Uh…” The green man, Giles, decided to completely ignore Markus, instead deciding to flirt with the woman that had just entered the room. Well, Markus wasn’t entirely certain, but the clothes were the exact same and the person did sit in the same spot as the man who left. It was very likely that the woman who returned and the man who left were the same person. They had a shapeshifter in their presence. Just perfect; who knew what shape this person would take to fool everyone and take advantage of the confusion. As the military man flirted with the woman, after throwing a message to the other silent man, who apparently was one of the family Eldar. Markus guessed he had slipped into the room while everyone was distracted by the woman. There wasn’t really much to say, so Markus sat down next to the man with the papers. “Whatcha reading there?” Markus asked, while looking over the papers. They contained something on Richard Brooks. “He won’t find the history of us that way; trust me. Besides, that bit’s wrong right there.”
 

DeletedUser31931

Savant Name: Quickflash

Human Name: Kasumi Goto

Gender: Female

Age: 27

Appearance: Kasumi is medium height and has one of the most average body descriptions possible for a human being. She has short black hair at the front that flows down around her back and brown eyes, though most of her face is obscured by her outfit. She wears all black clothing with a hood that covers her hair and comes down to her eyes with only her eyes down to her neck showing. She wears black gloves and never seems to change outfits. She looks like this.

Skills: Stealth (3)
Observation (2)
Sleight of Hand (2)
Lockpicking (1)
Melee (1)
Agility (1)

Flaws:
Guns (2)
Kleptomania (2)

Power: Cyberpathy

Equipment: Mobile phone that never leaves her pocket, Set of lockpicks, reprogrammable keycard, stiletto knife

Bio: Kasumi was born to a family of Savants in Japan who were having a tough time scraping by. She first saw powers being used when she saw her father slam two triad members into a wall with his telekenesis. She was taught to never use guns and has not touched one in her life resulting in her crippling inability to use them as well as her irrational fear of using them. As she grew up, she started helping her father break into various places and her talent with computers was very useful and aided her in many a situation. As a result she is fluent in every coding language and though her friends assume she is joking when she says she thinks in code, she is not quite so sure. She was first recruited to do a job by the Savant community several years ago in which she broke into some rich guy's mansion (and stole his nicest silverware whilst she was there, not that he'd miss it) and proved he'd been setting up mass insurance fraud for a company.

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Kasumi awoke with a yawn and pulled herself out of the pod that she'd called home for the last couple of months. This latest fix was proving to be even more of an interesting challenge that she'd anticipated. Now she was having to question whether she should upload the details of his repeated infidelity for all the world to see, or just send it to his wife and let her see. Either way, by the end of the week, that lovely statue in his room would be joining her small rented room of treasures. She knew that they'd probably be worth enough yen to get her an apartment but she didn't really want to sell them. Besides, that wouldn't help, she'd stopped seeing the shrink her dad had recommended for her supposed Kleptomania after she'd stolen his wedding ring off of his finger whilst he hadn't noticed. Or you could come do something decent with your life Kasumi... The presence in her head sent tingles up her spine and she shot something back in Japanese telling her mystery guest exactly what she thought of his intruding upon a girl's private thoughts. He apologised and informed her of the situation. Realising that she was wanted more as a cyberpath than as a thief slightly disappointed her but as he gave her the profiles of the other members of the team, she decided that stealing their things would be interesting enough and two hours later she was boarding a first class flight from Tokyo airport straight to New York City. As she boarded the plane, a rich young woman opened up an email from her husband with a zip file attached to it (ugly but it worked in this situation). Inside there were multiple photos and finally an audio clip. A little speech he'd recorded just for himself in case he ever doubted his actions. The woman nearly feinted in shock and then called her uncle. He would know a divorce lawyer.

Thirteen hours and one slight ruffled customs officer later and Kasumi had entered the land of the free where you were free to cut one another's throats so long as you had enough money to pay someone else to clear up the bloodstains. She made her way into the office and slipped past the front door. The detector picked up nothing, mainly because she politely asked it not to. She quietly slipped in at the back of the room and watched the other members of her "team" talk. She was tired, she had received only a little sleep on the flight over and was looking forward to hitting the sack (wasn't that the phrase?) after their briefing. She briefly wondered where their supposed boss actually was when the wall at the other end of the room slid open and a man walked out. Well, that answered her question.

Quill
Quill observed the team through the one way mirror. Barring their final entrant, who he still hadn't decided whether he wanted to include, the entire team had now assembled. He ran through all of them in head one final time. There was Grellad. He was both the muscle and the smooth talker of the team. He'd seen a video tape of the man fighting and had known that the team could use him, in case they got into any sticky situations. If he could get past his own self obsession then he might make a decent negotiator as well. Masque was an... unfortunate necessary. She was a veteran and a more reliable one than Dante but the fact that he had to use her past as leverage... He'd rather not have unwilling members of the team but he had to face facts. This was an unusual case and he needed these people for it. Dante was a loose cannon. There was no escaping that. He could handle himself and would act as the secondary backup should Grellad fail. His investigations expertise would also come in useful. He'd have to make sure that his behaviour towards Masque was... limited. He didn't want bad team relations getting in the way of the case, not when his boss had practically shouted at him for simply daring to be near to Estari's death. Essex was useful, his psychometry was fairly powerful and god knows they'd need that after the failure of the psychometrist for the FBI... Megas he could have done without but his skill as a mental manipulator made him useful for both damage control and witness interrogation. Renekan was useful but he didn't like not being able to see into his mind without the aid of his machine. Quickflash was a wild card. Her abilities made her extremely versatile but she had stolen items from other members of the team no less than twice each on her previous mission in Japan. That sort of thing caused fractures and he didn't want to have to play peace keeper. Quill sighed, deciding that now was as good a time as any. He pressed the button next to him and the wall receeded, sliding out of his way. He stepped into the boardroom and did the mental version of clearing his throat, instantly drawing the attention of all the people besides Renekan. Quill was not your typical "g-man". He was a tall and athletic black man, with a figure more akin to a sprinter than an FBI agent. The Five-Seven that he carried in his jacket was discreetly concealed but he was more than capable of wielding it should the situation arise. "Ladies and Gentlemen. Thank you for making your way here today, your co-operation is appreciated. I'm sure some of you are tired after your journey so I'll keep this brief." Here Quill paused for breath, as if preparing himself for the debrief. "Renekan, you might want to lower your shields for this." With his word of advice given, Quill began. "As you know, I am Quill. I'm the liaison between our community and the FBI for New York. A couple of days ago, Estari Imale, given name Rich Brook, was found dead in his flat. Police have ruled his death a suicide and decided that no further investigation is warranted. We, on the other hand, think different." As he spoke, images of the flat flashed up in the heads of the members of the team around the room. What it looked like, Estari lying dead where he had been found, a view of the crime scene from Quill's own eyes. "Imale was working on a top secret project for the FBI. Even I'm not sure what it was but it was something seriously important. The only issue is that only he and the nationwide Savant director had access to the files and, right before his death, he went onto the network and removed all trace of those files. Witness reports say he was acting strange for the last several days of his life, almost like he knew he was going to die. At this moment in time, we suspect major foul play in his death and someone doing a very good job of trying to cover it up. That's where you come in. It's beginning to get late in the day now, so if you follow me I'll take you to our subway HQ where we'll be putting you all up for your stay here. We'll start early tomorrow morning and go straight to the crime scene from there so that you can begin your investigation. Any questions? If not, then let's go." As Quill finished, he looked round the room, awaiting the almost inevitable responses from it's occupants.
 
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DeletedUser37114

Unfortunately for Dante, the greenie seemed to take Harper's side, going so far as to chide the fellow for his crudeness. The brief wink of appreciation was frosting on the cake as far as she was concerned. Oh yes, she definitely had an ally. Her colleagues seemed to be getting restless in the meantime, as the guy who'd arrived after Dante... Markus moved over to the quiet man who'd walked in directly after him to start his own conversation. Another new person, dressed very conservatively all in black, slipped into the room as unobtrusively as someone probably could have. From the feminine shape of their clothing, this was probably a female member, which was pretty nice, though Harper figured she wasn't going to be able to talk to her for a little while. Keeping Dante busy was far too much fun.

However, all this suddenly took a back seat as their mysterious employer slid the back wall open to step inside the room. As much as she could appreciate theatrics, and this was definitely a show of some sort, these sorts of things weren't exactly helpful for the actual teams. The man had obviously been watching them all, waiting for the last team member, the person in black, to show up. He could just as easily waited here in the room with them without the theatrics. And on top of that, this was apparently the telepath who'd assembled them in the first place. Showy jerk. The man explained the entire situation in greater detail, talking about how he was an ambassador for the FBI, how they'd be heading to some sort of subway HQ and all that jazz. Fortunately, he also asked if there were any question and looked around as if he actually meant it. That was a surprise, usually the suits gave orders and only took questions afterward, privately, lest their authority be undermined. So if he was offering... Harper raised her hand lazily and, without waiting for any answer, asked, rapid-fire, "Any determined cause of death? Will we be getting information on our fellow team members? Will we have time to shop while we're here? How's the food at HQ?" It wasn't like she was purposely trying to be obnoxious or anything, these were all perfectly practical questions. This was important information that hadn't been addressed in the briefing. Especially that last one, Harper hadn't eaten since breakfast.
 

DeletedUser

Percival had just finished setting his notes out as the hypothesized scholar took the seat next to him and began reading the some of the notes Percival had written on the plane trip over. Turning to the forthright man Percival betrayed a bemused smile. "Ah, as I expected you are the scholarly type. Well then you must tell me the errors in my notes, I'm afraid I didn't have enough time to do a through investigation of sources on my plane ride over. I only got works from the FIB and KGB records and some of those records were incomplete." Percival said pointing to various margin notes signifying where the translations were missing parts.

The conversation was brought short by the opening of the far wall and the appearance of the man who looked to be in charge of the investigation. At the end of the short mission briefing Percival turns once more to the scholar. "My name is Percival by the way, I suppose we can finish our conversation at this HQ of his." And in one smooth motion the notebooks are swept back into their suitcase and Percival shuts it.
 

DeletedUser

The military guy who had shouted Dmitri's name at him had then preceded to make a move on the blonde woman sitting nearby, inducing some sharp reponses from both her and the green guy. It seemed like they had developed a taste for each other, given how one rose to the other's defence. The best part about it was that it silenced the loud militaryman who didnt pursue the conversation any further.

Their small talk was interrupted by the entry of two people, firstly a woman in black with her hood lowered so only her eyes were visible and secondly, the man who walked up from behind the room as the wall parted. This, he guessed was his employer. The man poked into everybody's conciousness to announce his entrance which Ernest blocked instinctively. This, the man did not take well apparently, as he was adviced to lower his shields for a while. The man then went on to brief the mission. Some savant working for the FBI named Estari Imale was found dead in his flat under mysterious circumstances and the FBI suspected foul play. The records on him were also lost because he had wiped them right before his death. It did seem like foul play. Their ragtag team was assembled to investigate the case. However the man did not give away any more info, it almost seemed like he was....holding back? Either way, they were then told that they would be escorted to an HQ where they would spend the night and get to work early morning tommorow. This short speech was met with a bunch of questions from the blonde female about the suspected cause of murder and such, which he thought were perfectly viable ones barring the last one which was something about the food at the HQ. However, before he could answer, the guy in formal attire named Percival stood and announced that they could discuss the rest at the HQ and proceeded to pack his notebooks into the suitcase. Ernest waited for further words from the man in charge.
 
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DeletedUser28032

Dante couldn't help but gape silently as Barbie AKA Harper so effectively turned the tables on him with a snarky insult worthy of him My God, I think I am in love! that also brought a knight in shining green armour to her defence "Cool it Captain Emerald I know who she is...touché Harper, touché" he replied quietly with a mock bow for Harper's benefit figuring that if he/she was the sharing type then he/she would have told them what he/she could do when Captain Emerald had asked "...also Emerald you may have volunteered for this but I was conscripted and between Dmitri Eldar and Singapore..." Dante snapped his mouth shut. He'd said too much, a combination of too little food and sleep, and too many complimentary drinks on the flight obviously being the cause of this little indiscretion. He’d have to be more careful in future...they never did catch the Savant that had betrayed them.
Giving both Harper and Giles a look that seemed to scream Don't ask! Dante proceeded to finish making his point in a more cautious manner "what I meant is… I was kind of looking forward to not working with other Savant for a while" like ever again.

Whilst this little scene had been playing out Dante hadn't really been paying much attention to anyone else in the room. However when the wall suddenly opened up to reveal a man in a suit Dante instinctively reached out with his mind fully intending to rip the light fittings out of the suspended ceiling and hurl them at this mysterious G-man. However it would appear that he wasn't the only one to react in such a manner as he found his abilities all but nullified oh great we have a blocker in the room.
Dante listened quietly as the man made his introductions and delivered a mission briefing, knowing that any comments made by him would neither be wanted or welcome at this point in time. Once he had finished he asked the obligatory any questions? question which Harper eagerly took up with Dante adding his own two pennies "I'll second those last two...I mean I'd happily lend her a pair of my pink frilly panties but I somehow doubt we're the same size" he said smirking over his small piece of self-deprecating humour "...also what I want to know is...sit yer ass down we're talking here!" he shouted as one of the group stood up and announced that they would talk more at the bat cave, prompting Dante to quietly miss the military where such interruptions didn't happen "Apologies, very long flight...but as I was saying if your so sure your pal was iced then who are our persons of interest?"
 

Deleted User - 819397

Dante recovered smoothly, saying he knew who Harper was and was just giving her a hard time. Giles personally didn't see how that excused the behavior, but at least he was being friendly again, going so far as to explain that he didn't want to be here, but had been forced. THAT was an interesting piece of information, and the former aristocrat filed it away for later use. He didn't press for answers, as the telekinetic made it very clear through his body language that he should NOT be asking about the reasons, which was fine with him.

It was at this point that a panel opened up from behind the wall, revealing someone who had to be their employer. Giles couldn't help but roll his eyes…there was a time and place to be melodramatic, and he didn't really think a mission briefing was the best place. However, with the arrival of Quill, as he introduced himself, the voice belonging to the one who'd called him in in the first place, they got more information on what was going on, or at least a little more info. This guy had seemingly committed suicide, Quill thought otherwise, and honestly the information presented supported his claim. Suicidal people may change their tendencies before they go, but paranoia wasn't a quirk that tended to pop up. The real question was how did it happen, that the power-less people involved couldn't see any reason to not call it a suicide, especially if he was doing top secret government work? Something didn't fit, and the swordsman wasn't really happy about it.

Quill opened the floor to questions, prompting Harper to spout off four quick ones, all of them good. The manner in which Estari had supposedly committed suicide would help shape their investigation. Information on his coworkers would be nice, though it was a little wacky thinking that someone had compiled a file on him. Food would be heavenly, he hadn't eaten since this morning, unless you counted the bag of severely mediocre pretzels that planes gave you. If the food at this HQ was bad, he'd probably eat out. And he was in friggen New York City…he better get time to shop. He grinned over at Harper, glad that she'd thought to ask what she had, as his mind had been too occupied with trying to find an answer in the little information he had. However, not everyone was enthusiastic about someone asking the right questions, as one of the two…or wait, three (when did that shadowy person get here??) people who hadn't talked stood up, introducing themselves as Percival and saying they could finish the conversation back at HQ. Dante blew up at the man, and Giles nodded gratefully to him…once they broke up from the meeting here he wanted to not have to reconvene that night…it made far more sense to wrap things up here. The telekinetic then put forward if there were any persons of interest, another good question. After a moment of thought, Giles simply leaned back. His question would be better answered after they'd seen the crime scene…asking now would likely net him an "I'm not sure yet" or something along those lines. He idly hoped they'd get out of the meeting soon…as much as the conversation interested him, he'd had about enough of the antisocial behavior from the majority of the room…Harper he was going to enjoy working with, and so long as Dante didn't keep being crude he could get along with him. Markus had seemed friendly, but he didn't really get a chance to say much with all the other events in the room. The other three…he'd have to see.


(I've added a picture of Giles to my bio, should help further explain the description I made)
 

DeletedUser31931

Kasumi smiled as their leader stepped out from behind a wall. An ingenious system of hiding something, or it would be if the space left for it weren't made quite so obvious in the design plans for the building (which she had quietly obtained upon entering the building). As he spoke, she scanned his body over the wifi network for any connected device and sighed upon discovering that he did. Of course he knew of her talents so his phone was probably on air-plane mode right now. Not that she didn't understand. After all, she had already accessed the phones of every other person in the room and she was currently downloading as much off of all of them as possible. Advantage of a brain, that, very high storage space. Meanwhile, Quill, as he appeared to be calling himself, was informing them of the facts of the case. She watched as the others began to speak and decided that they'd probably ask all the questions she wanted to ask anyway, so she could leave them all to it.

Quill
He watched (and listened) to the other's reactions as he spoke to them and then, as Masque began he questions, he privately chuckled to himself. Dante then asked some questions of his own and there was an almost indiscernible wince from Quill as the man shouted at Megas, as if the telepath could hear it mentally. He made a note to turn down the volume on Dante's thoughts. Once Dante had finished speaking, he began to speak again. "I'll answer your questions in order. He died from a fatal overdose of painkillers. Classic suicide and we have the receipts from the stores to validate his purchases and the store clerks have confirmed that it was a man matching his description who bought them. That means nothing if a mimic is involved but it was enough for the police to declare case closed. If it weren't for his actions just before he had died then you all wouldn't be here. As for information on your other team members..." Quill smiled just a small smile to himself at this point, as if he found something amusing, "They're your team members. You're going to be working on this case for probably the next week or so together so you might as well get to know one another. There will probably be downtime during the case whilst we wait for test results or whilst one specific person does something and what you do during that down time is your own prerogative. As for the food, it's pretty good actually. I, personally, quite like it. Partly we don't know if Estari was killed, at this point the best guess we've got is a mind manipulative. We're not sure who would have killed him, he doesn't seem to have had many enemies in the Savant community, he was generally a well liked and well respected scientist as well. At the moment our priority is trying to figure out who would want to kill him, whether there's a mind manipulative in town who they could have used and what happened to the data for the project that Estari was working on. Any more questions?" Quill knew that getting the group to trust him would be important, but considering that their sole biggest suspect was someone personal... he didn't like that fact but it would be a very good motivator for Dante. He decided reached into Dante's mind and spoke privately to him as he listened to any responses other people might have. "To that effect, we actually already have one possible suspect. I want you to find him and bring him in. I'll explain fully once we're out of this meeting and on the train to the base."
 
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DeletedUser37114

Thinking back to her interactions with Dante while she waited for Quill to respond, Harper smiled a bit. It was fun seeing the self assured and abrasive man on the back foot, plus the bit of information he'd dropped was particularly nice to hear. The idea that this Suit had been desperate enough to conscript more than one of them was, in itself, interesting and something she could empathize with the man over. He'd finished his good start on repairing the bridge he'd seemed busy torching by supporting her questions and asking a few of his own. Maybe there was an ally there, if he really could keep a little control over himself. The little bit about his panties was especially nice, though if he had any doubts as to her size, he obviously hadn't really thought things through. He was also quite rude to the man who'd wanted to leave and get to headquarters right away, but at least there was a little progress.

To make things even better, Giles grinned over at her, seeming to appreciate her topics of conversation. Harper smiled back, glad that the man was easily amused, though the expression faded as Quill answered her questions calmly, fully, and with a sense of humor that made him seem a lot more... human than before. The guy knew that she was playing a game and didn't fault her for it, though his change in direction from food to motive without skipping a beat was a little disturbing. She'd met some federal agents before who didn't care about death and killing, but this guy didn't seem to be that way to her. Something to do with the humor and the fact that he opened himself up to more questions after her own... maybe he was just flowing from question to question without considering the jump in topics. Probably said something about how his mind worked. Harper added a quick "Nope," and a shake of her head, then leaned back in her chair to relax a little. For now, she was content with what they'd been told and looking forward to seeing HQ. Oh, and the food, of course, she was still pretty hungry.
 

Deleted User - 819397

Quill started up on the information, explaining the man had seemingly died of a sleeping pill overdose, though again it didn't fit his previous mentality. People had seen him buying them, which either meant someone had taken his form, or had made them think that he'd done it…or they were just bad witnesses. Giles knew people had a hard enough time remembering details about their family heirlooms from his job at the antiques shop…he couldn't really imagine people remembering things that clearly about a man buying ordinary sleeping pills.

The rest of the questions passed by quick enough…they would be working with the people so no need for files on them, which made sense (and made him feel somewhat relieved, now there was a chance they didn't have a file on him). They'd likely have down time which was excellent, and the food was good (also great to know). Due to the circumstances they didn't have much to go on just yet, so there wasn't enough to warrant a lot of speculation in the former aristocrat's mind. Instead, he simply shook his head at Quill's asking if there were further questions, hoping they could move on to dinner soon…air travel always made him hungry, and he hadn't had time to eat upon landing in New York.
 

DeletedUser13682

“Well, I do tend to dress for the part, you know? Can’t have people getting the wrong idea about me, you see. Uh… they’re not done yet…” Percival had decided that he was bored with the meeting and tried to leave, being yelled at by 4th of July. “You may want to sit down there, buddy. Kovic may bet angry at you.” The actual briefing that Percival seemed so very bored of was actually not that bad. The man who entered the room had occupied a chamber, probably containing a one way mirror. Entrance was through the sliding wall. The reason they were here was simple enough; a man, a prominent savant called Rich Brooks had apparently committed suicide. But the government didn’t really believe that if they were all gathered here today. From all the images he had been beamed so far and the information they had been told, the police’s conclusion seemed the most likely. People often acted weird shortly before taking their own lives. When the case was open to questions, some fairly stupid ones were asked. What did it matter whether the food here tasted good? What did it matter whether they would have time to shop? But their host, Quill, seemed to think they were good enough to warrant answers. Quill decided to not answer the identity of any suspects, unless the host decided that Markus wasn’t worthy of the identity. While some of the questions seemed sensible, there was one that nobody had asked yet. “Yeah, I’ve got a question,” Markus spoke, as he lit a cigarette. “Why do you think it was a murder? I mean, it makes sense when you think in Savant terms, but we’re all human. We get depressed, we kill ourselves sometimes. People act very strange before they kill themselves. Mr. Brooks acted very strange; he bought the painkillers, deleted his files. Besides, you said he was well liked. Not everyone leaves a note when they suicide.” Markus shrugged and offered out his cigarettes, in case anyone else wanted one.
 

DeletedUser31931

Quill sighed as Essex raised his question. He was right but Quill had hoped to avoid this until he actually knew some of the details. "It's his actions just before he died. When I said he deleted the files, I wasn't exactly clear enough and for that I apologise. The reason why is because I still don't have the full details and was hoping that Quickflash," at this statement Quill nodded at Kasumi who appeared to have either not noticed or not cared that she had been brought up, "could actually piece together the picture tomorrow. When you delete a file, most of the time you just delete it and it gets wiped off of your hard-drive but it still partially remains in a system as ghost data. You can try to piece that data back together using the logs in the OS system. There is a way to go through those logs and systematically remove all such mentions, wiping both the existence of the data and anything that might even point to the existence of such data. Not to mention that shortly before he committed suicide, about half an hour to an hour if the initial autopsy is to be believed, the system logs him sending packets of data to an unknown address. The address is unknown because it was also wiped from the system along with what the data was. We're currently seeing what, if anything, we can piece together from his computer and so your job is to figure out who might want that data, why they might want it and, more importantly, how we might find it." Quill hadn't wanted to give that information away. He hated being in a position where he didn't know all of the facts and having to admit that and tell the others what he didn't know was frustrating. "If you have any further questions, you can ask me as we head to the base. Now follow me." With that, Quill turned and headed back through the way he'd came. As the others filed in it would become clear that what they were standing in was actually an elevator. Once they were all inside, Quill pressed a button and the doors shut and the elevator slid downwards with the group catching brief glimpses of other FBI meeting and prep rooms. They walked out into a small subway station. "When the subway was original created in New York we took the liberty of using the underground commotion to install our own network. We've steadily added to it but it gives us quick access around the city to a variety of locations." There was a train already at the station and the doors slid open. It was currently empty and Quill gestured for his fellow Savants to board it. "After you."
 

DeletedUser37114

Harper, mostly by luck and lack of gawking at the scenery managed to be at the front of the crowd as they exited the elevator. Markus had raised the only additional question before Quill had decided the meeting was over, that one being why the man had been so sure this was a suicide. Harper didn't particularly care about that bit, though apparently the person in the black in the back, Quicksilver, would be producing some evidence of this. The question itself didn't really matter, as she'd learned from long experience, because the reason they were here is that the government wanted them to be. Whys didn't really matter and often served only to expose that something was going unexplained, something that would be more likely to fracture a team than bring it together. Like here, simple evidence that the man had been sending the data to an unknown address before wiping the system was more than enough to suspect foul play. So much so that the normals should have picked up on it. So why hadn't they?

Her thoughts preoccupied her right up until Quill gestured them to get on the train, at which point Harper's instincts screamed something was wrong and her hands began shaking, hard. People like this normally led others, they weren't courteous enough to let their team on first when they could waltz in and let the subordinates follow. That meant there was some sort of ulterior motive at work here and... some reason for the team to be on the train before Quill. She froze right in front of the doors, thoughts running through her head... a bomb maybe? Some way to kill all the Savants here before they could respond? She might be the target of that sort of attack from the higher-ups, same with Dante, apparently Dante had some beef with one of the other members, so... could this be a very well planned mass execution, one for those normally too hard for the g-men to catch? Her breathing and heart rate sped up as the thoughts whirled and she looked around, looking for the trap, looking for a way out, maybe that car right there could hold a... then she caught sight of Giles. There was no way someone like that would have earned an execution, way too green and innocent for this. Quill was just being polite, in that strange way of his, and this was just a train to get them to HQ. Nobody was going to die here. No need to panic. That being said... she grabbed the back of Giles' jacket without a word, pushing him with her onto the train. If anything happened, she'd at least die next to pretty boy.
 

Deleted User - 819397

Markus, the one who seemed friendly, asked what made them think this wasn't a simple suicide, which made sense enough. Quill's response was that before he'd wiped his computer, Brooks had sent something to someone, only to have the information involved there destroyed as well. The telepathic Savant wanted them to find the data, and hopefully in doing so determine if it was actually a suicide. Giles wasn't entirely sure this warranted a full on manhunt, but hey, they got paid no matter what, and if nothing else he could at least say the next case wasn't his first. With that, the meeting was disbanded, and it was revealed the mysterious moving panel actually was an elevator. Still melodramatic, but more understandable. Seeing as he was near the elevator in the first place, he wound up near the front of the group, his ideal location anyway in case anyone wanted to talk to him. Quill politely explained that the government had a whole system of secret subway systems, and then asked for them to get into the waiting train.

Things happened rather quickly after that. Giles had just about to step onboard when someone grabbed him by the back of his jacket and dragged him in before he could react. His cries of protest were cut off as he looked to Harper, the shapeshifter looking… "Hey, are you ok?" he asked, concerned. Her eyes were a bit cloudy with fear, something wasn't right, and the reaction she'd had had been to drag him into the scenario. That meant either she thought he was expendable if she was expecting danger, or out of the group she found him most comforting. Seeing as she had actually seemed to be one of the kinder members of the Savants, he couldn't help but assume it was the latter. Speaking in a calm, soothing voice, he helped guide her over to a pair of seats near the back to both give her some stability and keep her away from the others for a moment. "We're fine…nothing's wrong…relax, you'll be ok…breathe slowly and deeply..." He kept up the mantra, keeping his voice low so only she could hear, figuring once she recovered she wouldn't want the others knowing more about the situation than they had to. This wasn't his first time helping someone out of a panic attack…his little sister had been prone to them when she had been little, being afraid of the things her relatives were doing, regardless of it being for entertainment. He'd been the only one who cared enough to calm her down…not that she'd helped defend him when the time came for him to be kicked out of the family. No, she'd been jeering with the rest, which regardless of her reasonings had hurt deeply. However, that wasn't who he was helping this time, he was helping a shapeshifter who had decided he was the best choice to keep near during a moment of panic, and damn it if he wasn't going to live up to that level of trust. He wouldn't be able to justify anything less.
 

DeletedUser37114

As Harper tried to calm her racing heart and breathe normally, she noticed that Giles had decided to start guiding her to the back of the train, much nearer to any potential- she closed her eyes as he sat them both down, keeping his voice soothing. She heard something about breathing and relaxing from him, but what mattered was the tone and she latched on to his voice as something to center herself. She was safe, Quill or whoever might have come up with this scheme wouldn't be doing anything to hurt him, and by proxy, her. It took her about thirty seconds to pull herself back together, though she still didn't open her eyes and her breathing was still a little ragged. Then she realized that she'd just about fallen to pieces in front of the obvious newbie of the team... and he'd been the one to help her out.

She felt her cheeks heat up, one of the unfortunate things about this particular body, took a deep breath, and opened her eyes to glare at Giles. "Anyone asks, I wanted to ask you some fashion questions. You tell anyone about this, you're going to get some scars that won't go well with your outfit. Got it?" She wasn't really angry, but he'd seen her in a moment of vulnerability and, worse, had know exactly what was going on and how to help. And with how much he talked, she wasn't about to let every member of the team know that she had any vulnerabilities. Besides, this helped her to push the paranoia away and ground herself, Giles could put up with a little threatening between coworkers.
 
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Deleted User - 819397

Giles' administrations brought Harper back to reality fairly quickly…it wasn't clear if she was just used to pulling herself together or if it had been a minor attack…potentially it had been both. He removed his arm from around her as soon as he could tell she was back, not wanting to appear improper…had it NOT been a panic attack that had prompted the action, he would've lingered…but there was a time and a place, and this wasn't it. Harper glared at him, telling him in no unclear terms that he wasn't to tell the others what actually happened. Realizing that she was embarrassed by the situation more than anything, he frowned at her, raising his voice as if frustrated. "I don't care what they told you, horizontal stripes add pounds! Vertical are where you want to look if you want stripes. That's final." Again using his hair as a way to block his left eye from general view, he winked before huffing and turning slightly away from her as if disgruntled with her stance on things. He wasn't going to be leaving the seat though, and any further attempts to talk would result in him re-engaging her in conversation, but for her appearance's sake he would refrain from initiating himself, at least until they got off the train.

While he waited for the train to get moving, Giles returned to analyzing what little he knew about the case…the guy had died due to an overdose, police had plenty of evidence to rule it a suicide, but due to some missing code information Quill thought otherwise. This was the information age, true, and the victim had been working on a secret project, also true…so what had he sent? If he was committing suicide, why hide what he'd done? He was dead anyway. He supposed that's what set off Quill's metaphorical alarm bells, but starting an investigation off that…this would probably take a while...
 
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DeletedUser37114

Giles picked up on what she meant beautifully, coming up with an argument on the spot to make the excuse clear to everyone. Not an amazing argument, as she couldn't disagree with his point at all, but an argument nonetheless. She almost started feeling bad that she'd threatened the poor guy until he winked at her and turned away as if tired of trying to push this same point. Her embarrassment fading a little, she now winced at the threat when the guy had only been trying to help. He'd seemed pretty friendly and willing to play the game, but Harper was concerned that she'd lost something with him there.

She leaned against him on her seat and said, in a quieter, more reasonable tone than the one he'd used, "I get that, I know, but sometimes horizontal stripes really are useful. Some of my forms being as flat as they are, and others being outright scrawny, a little weight gain does wonders." Of course she wasn't really as into the argument as she probably should have been, but she was a little scared to make it appear too genuine. She wanted to let Giles know that she hadn't meant the threat. Harper pulled her hand, which was down to only a slight tremor, away from his jacket and shifted so that she was on her knees, tall enough to wrap her arms loosely around his neck and press her chest against his back, as if she were a lover trying to mend things after a squabble. Her lips next to his ear, she whispered, "Sorry," before shifting back down to take her seat properly once again.
 

Deleted User - 819397

Giles had to fight hard not to smile when Harper responded, explaining that sometimes the weight added by horizontal stripes was necessary when trying to 'beef up' some of her forms, as it were. Her tone wasn't as argumentative as his, and seemed to carry a note of regret. He hesitated to turn around, unsure if this was part of the act, that she was supposed to be more uncertain of her position, thus why she'd dragged him into the train to question him…he had just decided that he probably should turn regardless so as not to appear to be pouting when she let go of his jacket. He blinked, not having realized that she'd still been holding onto it…he supposed that in the middle of her panic attack, she wouldn't have thought to let go, and he would've become accustomed to the sensation. As his outfit worked the creases left by Harper's grip out of itself, Giles found her arms around his neck, and waitasecondwhat? He snuck a quick glance at the rest of the train, not sure if he was hoping that everyone had dismissed their argument as being petty and was paying no attention, or if he wanted everyone to be looking to confirm that he wasn't imagining her pressing herself against him. He lamented the fact that he couldn't risk keeping THAT imprint in his clothes…if he was guaranteed to be alone for the rest of the night he would've, but as it was...

His surprise over the situation meant Giles almost didn't catch the apology that came through, though it took him a second to realize she meant it for threatening him. He didn't blame her…she was a professional, she couldn't afford to look weak over seemingly nothing, even though he knew through his sister that it wasn't nothing. On the other hand, he'd been the one who had been friendliest towards her to this point, so that likely had…aww, who cared why she was doing this? Just enjoy th-dammit it was over. He returned to a neutral sitting position, nodding at her and replying, "but of course," intending it for both a conclusion to their fake argument and an acceptance of her apology. He smiled slightly…he'd made a friend, clearly, and he'd not even been on the job for an hour…as he settled into a comfortable position, he reflected that it was definitely turning out to be an even more interesting day than he'd thought possible…from telepaths telling him to get to New York immediately to faked suicides to bonding with a shapeshifter. He certainly hadn't imagined THAT when he went to bed last night, nor would he have ever experienced it simply working at the antique store. Oh yes…it was good having power.
 

DeletedUser

Their employer in black answered all the questions targetted at him with professional confidence and Renekan knew that this man was well rehearsed with the facts. All the evidences pointed to the fact that there was either a mimic or a mind manipulator at work, the latter seeming more likely. In which case, Renekan's abilities would be put to good use. At this point one of them stood up and quipped about how it could be a case of natural suicide as well which would have been believable, had there not been too many weak links. Like their employer proceeded to say, the deleted digital records...also the fact that packets of data were apparently being sent on a regular basis to an unknown party. It seemed that his abilities would have to take a back seat for now as the man pointed out that the woman in the black hoodie (quickflash was her name) could investigate the case further the next day which pointed out the fact that she was a cyberpath. Those records might be the only piece of evidence they had for now, since initial autopsies hadn't revealed much. With that, the man finished his lot of questions for the day as they followed him into a cubicle of sorts behind the wall.

As the elevator descended down the many blocks of the FBI building, Renekan caught glimpses of the men in suits at work. It was a sight really, large rooms of people processing data and working together on cases, the humdrum he felt could be heard even from the soundproof elevator they were in. The level they got off at seemed to the last, as it was a subway station that they were looking at, with a train ready to take them to the HQ earlier mentioned. The man explained how they had access to the subways which helped in quick travels. Espionage stuff, he thought. Do your dirty work underground and maybe they wont notice.

As they proceeded to board the train, he saw the blonde girl hesitate for a moment and dragging the green guy with her onto the train. This prompted him to refortify his physic shields as she could have sensed some sort of danger.... he never got to know her powers, or rather the powers of most of the Savants here with him. He took a seat opposite to them as the green guy tried to cover for her with something about horizontal and vertical stripes. That actually made him smile a bit, perhaps it was the typical woman's instinct after all..which he knew most of the times was something one couldn't trust. Nevertheless he knew better now to stay alert, as whatever business they were getting into was still much covered in fog.
 

DeletedUser28032

Dante frowned slightly as he heard the dual answers; one spoken and one in his head that he took to be the real answer to the question. This wasn't good, why tell him privately why not tell the entire team? Unless...crap! This is Singapore all over again! He mentally cursed, furious that he'd allowed himself to be suckered into another mission for these people.
With the meeting adjourned Dante followed Quill and the team into what turned out to be a giant elevator that proceeded to take them down into a subway station "Boy, you blew the entire secret squirrel budget didn't you?" Dante said quietly to no one in particular as he stepped out and retrieved his gun from the aluminium tray that Blondie on reception had insisted he'd leave it on. Spinning the wheel in order to check that the revolver was still loaded with his highly illegal hollow points Dante steps onto the train and takes a seat near the back and putting his feet up so that no one sat next to him. He needed to think and the people on this team already thought he was a so wouldn't question the move.
ok so lets take it from the top...Nerdy guy buys himself a bunch of sleeping pills, fire axes his research before necking the entire bottle and washing it down with some Jack...wait was there any booze present? He can’t have dry swallowed them all, not that many...gotta check crime scene pics and see. Ok lets break this down...the footage of him buying the pills is irrelevant, a cherry on the cake for the boys in blue, sure it could be a Shifter or a Piper alternately the guy could have just been under stress and bought them himself, didn't mean he intended to top himself.
The killing itself… messy, too many possibilities leave it for the others fathom out, what about the data packages and the fire axe? Well we either have a top notch hacker or a Net Runner to look for, Dante thought to himself as he looked over at Quickflash; one the anti-social members of the team, not that it made her guilty but it certainly didn’t make him want to look elsewhere.
Truth be told without knowing any of the teams capabilities it could be any of them; best wait till Quill and him had a little chat before he let his paranoia run wild.
Glancing over his shoulder he watches as Barbie put he arms around Emerald’s neck and presses herself against him and whispers into his ear. Normally he would have shouted something; get a room! Or get in there my son! Something crude that would have made them both turn red with either anger or embarrassment, but with so much on his mind already he merely contented himself with rolling his eyes at the pair boy she doesn’t waste any time does she?
 
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