"Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating..." (Part 4: The Best-Laid Plans)

[cityship]

At some time during the night, while some were still sleeping, and some were awake and wandering around the hotel common rooms--a massive explosion rocked the hotel the group was staying in.

Simultaneously, perhaps by lucky chance, or perhaps on purpose, a number of the group was mysteriously teleported away. Specifically, the ones missing were: Fate, Jr., Kang, Superboy, Zouichi, Howard, The Doctor, Lash, Nightwing, Zetta, Dr. Henderson, Rory, Ruffnut, and Sakura.

The problem was that the group likely wouldn't be able to tell from the vaporized common rooms and bedrooms that those particular individuals hadn't been in them when the explosion hit.

[ooc: All subthreads are open.]

Comments

[seasindorei.livejournal.com]

Ter'thelas was rather more composed than he had been the night before, back in impeccable dress and not a hair out of place. He paced for a moment, studying the various screens and bits and pieces. All a bit beyond what he was used to, but so had a lot of things since he'd shown up here.

"Of course we're happy to be of assistance, but I'm not sure how much we can provide. You're the experts in this kind of thing, after all." A flattering little lie. Ter'thelas had plenty of experience in cracking mysteries, and he was sure others in the crew did as well.

[kandrakar-heart.livejournal.com]

Will's eyes narrowed. She had decided to show up in her Guardian form for this. Being taller and more imposing would be a definite advantage with dealing with everyone.

Well, that and being able to throw lightning at any enemies was definitely a good thing to be able to do after what had happened.

"I'm assuming that we aren't lucky enough to have any surveillance camera footage of anyone suspicious coming into or near the hotel, are we?" She asked, though the thought of using her powers over Quintessece to have the machine's around her come to life and let her know if anyone suspicious had come near there did cross her mind.

But no use doing that just yet. Unless they knew exactly where the blast started of course.

[not-edd.livejournal.com]

Zedd didn't feel right in this situation. Too many police surrounding him made him feel like he was one step away from being hauled away. Then again, in a place like this, he wouldn't be surprised if they did.

"Where do we start and do we get free reign?" he asked. He had a suspicion that the last part won't be easy. Then again, he can make it easy if need be.

[death_adept]

Jalith walked silently for the moment among the group, fully clad now in his Vindicare spy suit covered only by his long coat, a long case held in one hand as he cast his gaze about the room.

Free reign or not, Jalith stepped over to one of the Holoscreens closest to the two officers who had been talking, scanning over the information on the screen before looking across to the officer in question, "How many bodies were found all told?"

[cityship]

With a grim tone, Chief Constable walked in, holobinder in hand, giving it to a nearby assistant. He appeared to be very tired, no doubt having worked without sleeping for the past day.

"Councillor," he greeted, before turning to the others. "Mams, Sirs. Name's Mathnieas Skifa, I'm the Head Deputy Commissioner of this branch of the Global Police Taskforce." He put on one of the gloves handed to him by another police officer and got right into the meat of the subject. "To answer your questions, you'll be starting right now. I'll give you all the info we have."

He moved his palm and a series of spheres appeared, forming chemical elements.

"These are the remains of the bombs we found. Traces of nitroglycerin, uranium-235 and plutonium-239 were found in the walls. The boys down in the lab are still analyzing, but it's definitely homemade bombs, composed of grab and stashed components." He turned toward Jalith. "Two dead bodies were found, although so burned we had to identify them using teeth records and DNA samples. Couple on their honeymoon. Damn shame. Not many couples choose to get married this day and age." He looked cross. "They were the closest to the rooms where your teammates were. The damn things were burned and destroyed beyond recognition. We've found no traces of them so they are considered MIA for now." Fancy talk that the force believed their comrades dead.

"Otherwise, a high number of injured, including your own. Damage in the kitchen, pipes were blown up. The entire place was ransacked. Also the pope bobble heads were stolen. I like to call them popeble heads"

He moved a few screens around and they saw the footage from the hotel. The corridors at night and then...

"Everything is shut down five minutes before the bombs went off," Mathnieas explains. He points toward part of the footage, there is a black silhouette. "We think someone either had a scrambler, or was working with the guard. The security guard is, unfortunately, currently undergoing massive surgery. Lost an arm and a leg during the blast and we want him healed before we get him to talk. Can't have him die during interrogation. The boys will be on him as soon as he can open his mouth and not bleed to death."

He looked at all five of them.

"We figure you've got both personal involving in wanting this case solved as much as we do, not to mention you may have skills unavailable to us which can aid the boys in solving this case."

Someone handed him coffee, and he passed a few around to those in the group who could also use one.

"Sorry. I've been up for nearly twenty four hours. These boys are bad for the brain but I can't go to sleep just yet."

[hit-girl-mindy.livejournal.com]

Hit Girl closed her eyes a moment, her and tightening around the helmet Missing in action. Her dad had been a cop: she knew what those words implied. She swallowed, but her eyes would betray nothing. She knew when it was time to put feelings aside. She racked her brain , going over everything they had in the briefing. Couple dead. Black out. Security guard injured.

Obviously they had to be alive. No reason to detonate a bomb and use a scrambler. If they were dead, there would be some bodies besides just finding the couples. They would have at LEAST seen the bodies of some of their crew. If anything, they were probably a diversion to begin with: CLF probably wanted to draw the government away from the fact there were a few powerful people in their team that the other side could use.

They were all being used to begin with, right? If it wasn't bullshit propaganda, it was diversions. Extremes. And blowing up the hotel was extreme, but killing their team? That would have been pointless, wouldn't have helped them at all. They were pawns, and you didn't kill those, even she could see that much. Look for clues, her ass. They didn't need to do that to figure this much out.

She shook her head. "Thank you Constable, that gets us started. We should go explore the wreckage, see what we can find out."

What they NEEDED were clues to where their guys were being held, and what the CLF were planning to do with them. There was too much going on that they were missing.

[seasindorei.livejournal.com]

"No coffee for me; if you have tea though. . ." Ter'thelas smiled at the officers. No one had offered, but he was going to ask anyway. See how much, if at all, they wanted him to feel like one of the team.

"I agree with Hit Girl. Examining the physical evidence is the best course of action at this time."

[kandrakar-heart.livejournal.com]

Will just nodded, being in complete agreement there.

[not-edd.livejournal.com]

"Wait... plutonium and uranium?" Zedd said, cutting the others off. "Were we attacked with a nuclear weapon?!" Getting those sorts of things was kind of hard where he came from. He'd kill for a neo-plutonium reactor of Serpentera, though!