Follow the Money

"Sounds good. You go ahead and make the call. I'll check and see what Tremor's up to."

Fear starts moving to go outside and survey the situation.

Trevor turns around at Logan's tap and reads the note as she writes it out. "Join you for what? I still don't have any idea who you are or how you know anything about this except that you know Constance Blanche. Which, I'll admit, gets you some points." Trevor wipes off his hand on his pants and puts it out for a handshake. "Capes seem to be really bad at this part of meeting people, so, hi. I'm Trevor. I get that writing everything might take a while, so maybe Constance can help fill us in on some of this while you work it out?"

I suppose compared to guys in cloaks saying sooths about bank robberies, invisible jerks, and old dudes wearing fish bowls on their heads, a mute reporter and a snippy cyborg aren't the worst problems to have. Trevor suppresses a quick laugh. Sentences like that are why I avoided doing this Cape thing for so long.

Logan nods in understanding, and gladly shakes Trevor's hand.
She then flips to a fresh page and writes a new note: Might have something useful. A lot to explain.
She eyes Trevor cautiously for a moment, and then visibly makes herself relax. These are the good guys, she reminds herself. This whole ordeal has been so far out of her comfort zone.

Logan waves Constance over and reveals her second Third Street Bank envelope. She slides the photo copies out to show them: the warehouses, number 17, and the truck with license plate 938-J__ at 12:05AM.

While they look at the photos, she takes some time to write out an explanation.

I am "Enhanced," she notes carefully. I can make myself unseen. I was able to follow you into the bank, and managed to duck into the vault. I climbed onto the teleportation device and it activated. Took me to a warehouse. They got away with the money in that van. Bomb went off, not much left in the warehouse. Maybe records of who used it. Possibly identify license plate. I left copies of pics at police station, too.

Constance's eyes widen as she examines the pictures. "Wow, you answered a lot more questions than we were able to."
After looking through everything she smiles at Logan. "I knew you were going to be a huge help, this evidence is amazing. What do you think we should do next?"

Nadia nods to acknowledge Fear's comment, then pulls out her phone and dials the detective's number.

If he answers, she begins, "Hello, detective, sorry to bother you again. This is Dr. Delacroix... "

"On one hand, we could just leave this to the cops, but if there's a Super mastermind at the top of this and a warehouse loaded with explosives, I don't want to see any of them get hurt. I say we go check it out. You can go invisible, Shade can phase through walls, that Fear guy can probably put people to sleep with his podcast or whatever."

Trevor picks up a rock from the ground outside the ORACLE building and starts playing with it in his hands, shifting and reshaping it as he talks. "Besides, my back still hurts from that Fistpuncher guy. I wouldn't mind giving his boss a visit."

The phone rings several times before it picks up "Detective Kadir, what can I do for you?" hearing Nadia's greeting he continues "Ah Dr. Delacroix that was fast, did you remember something else about last night?"

---

Fear walks outside to find Constance, Logan, and Trevor talking and looking over pictures of the warehouse and truck. He comes out in time to catch Trevor's last comment about Fistpuncher and visiting his boss. The trio see him approaching his dark cloak and menacing appearance at odds with the sunny Monday midday.

"Less of a boss, more of an employer probably, the vibe I got from Fistpuncher's ORACLE record is that he was more of a mercenary type, maybe that's true for the rest of those guys as well."

Fear turns from addressing Tremor to the rest of the group."Nadia's busy calling the detective inside the ORACLE facility." Fear looks at Logan and asks, "How are you involved with the situation last night? Did you get any pictures of the suspects? If so, we can run them through ORACLE's system to get more information on them." Now we can start asking the real questions as opposed to forgoing what few resources lie in our hands.

Logan points to invite Fear to take a closer look at the photos, and shows him her note explaining how she got them. Logan circles the parts that say records of who used it (adds: warehouse) and identify license plate. After those have been read, she flips back to the page that says No pics. Police mug shots?

Fear sits pondering for a moment, Interesting, there might be more to this than meets to eye. "Do you have any kind of photo ID on you? If not or you don't wish to part with it, would you mind if I took a picture? I won't deny, my plan is to check with ORACLE to find out what they have on you. This might help the others trust you more. That or then they'll be upset with me as well." Fear shrugs, "I'd rather pool our resources than work in separate groups."

Logan joins Fear, seating herself so she can write on her knee. Cyborg still has my press pass, she scribes on a clean page of her notepad. Maybe she had the same idea.

"Maybe... I'm gonna go inside and get your press pass and run it. You're welcome to join me inside, or wait out here." Fear turns to Tremor and Constance and adds, "You two are also welcome to join us if you'd like, otherwise I'll be back in a minute." Fear goes to re-enter the ORACLE building.

"Not exactly, sir," Nadia tells Kadir, keeping the phone cradled between her shoulder and her left ear. "Sorry to bother you again, but apparently something Constance neglected to mention to either of us" --she lets some of her annoyance creep into her voice-- "is that she invited a journalist to the scene last night, so there could be even more people involved than we thought. I thought it prudent to check it out before my 'colleagues' here give up any sensitive information. Is the name Logan Brynmor familiar at all?" She nervously curls the photo Logan gave her into a tube, rolling it between her hands.

The detective lets out a heavy sigh "The name doesn't ring any bells but I'll do some digging. It doesn't surprise me that she told other people about it, I just got word that she contacted Mayor Elliot to tell him she would handle it so he in turn handed down orders to keep police presence to a minimum in the area. This whole thing is turning into a giant mess." the weariness in his voice is almost palpable.

For shit's sake... Who is even in charge of this ridiculous city? Nadia crushes the rolled-up photo in one fist. "Why am I not surprised--Okay. Look, detective," she begins matter-of-factly, "I'm doing my best to keep everything as on the books as possible, but these capes are fairly determined to investigate no matter what. I'll have to just keep you informed if they start to go off the rails... In the meantime, ORACLE got a positive ID on Fistpuncher, real name Alexander Petrovich, an MMA fighter from Boston. If you'd like I can run ORACLE records on the other two, but I'd need photos of them."

Ugh. I bet the rest of the group is going to tell me to just get on with the investigation, but one of us has to cultivate a good relationship with the authorities. Maybe I'll just apply for a PI license--Oh my god! For a second there I thought about doing this again! Ridiculous...

"I appreciate that Dr. Delacroix I really do. I'm not opposed to honest citizens helping out in cases like this. To be frank with you nine times out of ten we are out of our league when dealing with enhanced individuals and we just count or lucky stars we can afford the few protections we are able. While I legally can't divulge information of an ongoing investigation to a civilian I'll do what I can to help if it means keeping officers and civilians alike safe. I appreciate the heads up but we have access to ORACLE records too. When searching the other two we didn't get any hits. I've got some leads on the old guy in the icy hot suit but nothing actionable yet. The other one is still a full blown mystery." The detective replies.

"Of course, sir, I understand. Thanks again for your time." Unless Kadir has anything else to mention, she says goodbye to him and hangs up, then waits for Fear to come back inside.

The detective and Nadia exchange polite goodbyes. Fear walks back into the lobby as Nadia tucks away her phone. Archangel and Shade look on expectantly as the robotic attendant whirs gently watching the proceedings with a pleasant expression lit upon its face.

As Fear steps inside, Trevor tosses the rock he was playing with back onto the ground. It rolls farther than one might expect - the rock is nearly spherical, looking more like a ball formed from clay than an actual rock. Trevor stands up after a brief moment of awkward silence. "Well, I'm gonna go see what they found out. You should come inside, we'll figure this all out faster if we actually talk to each other." Trevor cringes slightly and glances at Logan apologetically. "Or, uh, write." Trevor follows Fear into the building, showing up in the lobby a minute or so after him.

After Fear enters, he approaches Nadia and says, "Do you have the reporter's ID still? I'd like to run it through ORACLE records."

"Why? I thought she was just a reporter and ORACLE is for cape registration." Archangel asks making finger quotes while saying 'just a reporter'.

Fear turns to Archangel, "She "mentioned" being "enhanced" when I went outside to check on Tremor. I figure that if she is "enhanced" as she says, there may be an ORACLE record of her. I mean, she obviously got decent pictures at the crime scene, yet none of you saw her, correct?" Fear waits patiently for Nadia to hand him the photo.

I hope that didn't come off too rude, I really wouldn't like her to get uppity and punch me again, note to self, watch grammar and tone around Archangel.

"Great, more superpowers making life complicated for everyone," she mutters. Nadia hands the press pass to Fear. "The cop said he ran the other perps through the ORACLE database himself and didn't get any hits, so that's another dead end."

Fear nods in thanks as Nadia hands him the press pass, now crumpled a bit from being fidgetted with by Nadia. Fear looks down at the pass, then back up at Nadia before walking silently over to the robotic assistant.

"Hi, could you scan this photograph for me please? I'd like to know what information you can give me about this person."

Trevor walks in as Fear is handing the press pass over the counter. The attendant takes the badge and spends a moment scanning then hands the badge back to Fear saying "No records found for Logan Brynmor."