Scene #4485: CoH Issue #1: Spy Games Pt. 2

Owner	Pose
War Witch	After discovering that Flower Knight had her mind and actions hijacked by a villain who combines magic and technology to overwrite both people and machines, heroes have decided to investigate the location where Flower Knight was attacked. A tech firm known as Tetra Corp that she was responding to reports of a break-in at. It's unlikely the culprit is still there, but they may find evidence indicating who was responsibility. Tetra Corp probably has security cameras in place, right? They must have footage. Given they're heroes, and responding to an incident that could reflect poorly on their company, they will be given all the help they need after arrival. Including being shown directly to the security room where everything was recorded. Along the way, they may see that the building that Flower Knight reported as very empty, almost abandoned, when she came here is active with lots of employees, security personnel, and so on. Why the building was empty in the middle of the day before, but not now, is something to think about. It's possible the villain may have used his powers and technology to drive everyone who should have been here away as well, but that might be giving too much credit. And it could lead to unreasonable paranoia about who is or isn't an ally. That can be dangerous. Horus doesn't seem to concerned about that possibility himself, but he DOES ask questions as they're escorted. "So, what are your business hours?" The lady leading them through the halls and past various offices answers cheerfully, "8 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday. Though a few days ago we missed a day due to an evacuation. There was a bomb threat." Horus seems surprised. That matches up with when Flower Knight was here. But she didn't report people being outside, or any police, or fire trucks, let alone a bomb squad. She just said it was 'empty'. "Oh. I see. That must have been inconvenient. So what kind of technology do you--?" He starts to ask as he looks towards those accompanying him, to see what their reactions are to the story, but the lady cuts him off. "We're here. Security staff have been informed to cooperate fully with you." she stands by a door and indicates the darkened room inside, lit by monitors and consoles. There doesn't appear to be anyone inside right now. "Someone will be with you shortly, though you can feel free to begin inspecting the footage. Apologies for the inconvenience. We're still getting things sorted out."
Ainsley	Ainsley doesn't have any questions while they follow along, though she does remain suspicious of the lady that is leading them. When she says 'bomb threat' and Horus shows overt surprise, she waits until she has a moment to think and proceeds to activate her Arcane Sight, a form of magic that lets her see the True Names of objects, but more importantly lets her zero in on anything she might've seen before. Such as the presence of the effect of that controlling device. She focuses her sight by pulling out that metal plated book from the last time she was in the city and activating a spell, allowing her to block out anything that might be irrelevant to her investigation. She starts with a brief glance at the woman that brought them to the room, but only long enough to nod at her. As the spell completes its activation, the page it was written on burns bright blue, giving off light but no heat, and vanishes. Stepping into the room, she begins to seek out evidence of the same magitech that would have been used on Flower Knight. Mostly it's a safety sweep, so that she or her companions are not caught off guard by the devices, but she does plan on scanning one of them directly if she does find one.
X	"So just who might want to make a bomb threat at Tetra Corp?" Is X's first question as he walks along with the group. He's disheartened to hear these are THINGS in this place, but... there's so much worse around. It's not that surprising... Oh well though. Onwards towards the darker security room... he goes to find a console to sit down at. It'll take him a bit to grok the equipment, but only a minute or so. Once he goes, he starts hunting out footage of everyone entering the building at relevant times...
War Witch	According to Ainsley's scans there's no indication of the specific effects or device or similar technology currently anywhere within sensing range, assuming her sensing range extends to 'the entire building'. However, there are traces of both having once been here, which is additional confirmation of Flower Knight's story. Their escort says, "It was a hoax. No bomb was found, and no explosion has occurred, clearly. There's no reason why anyone would want to attack Tetra Corp. We innovate new technologies. We've never had any controversy, and receive little attention from the media. It was assumed that it was just someone with too much free time on their hands. But if it is as you have said, then using a bomb threat as cover to infiltrate the building and steal from us might explain things." She shrugs and says, "A security expert will be with you soon. I have to get back to my desk. Good luck!" Then the heroes are alone in the security room, going over footage, audio recordings, logs of people coming and going... As much evidence as they find supporting the stories of those involved, there are also major discrepencies. Infact, if it weren't for Horus's expertise with this technology... "This footage has been altered." Horus states confidently after about fifteen minutes, during which no 'security expert' comes to join them. "The evacuation shown looks like a bunch of actors following a script. Very good actors. But there are subtle traces in the video encoding that shows this was inserted into the records to replace whatever was originally there. They did a really good job, but the video quality is distinctly different between the 'bomb threat' and the encounter between Flower Knight and her villain. Infact..." Horus points out elements of the encounter where it seems visuals have been distorted. Like someone masking themselves from video equipment. It is, again, subtle, but noticeable if you're actively looking for it. It's the sort of thing an amateur cold chalk up to common video glitches. Horus turns to the others, X having probably determined similar discrepencies in the logs and corresponding video of people coming and going. Some people seem to be loitering around, having small talk in the hallways, totally unsuspiciously, and then suddenly finding reason to go through a given location at a given time. On its own, any given segment of the video, or even the whole thing at once, would appear natural. A normal flow of people doing things throughout the day. But once one watches them out of sequence, or watches a bit before or after a specified time, and then pieces it together with the sum total of the video... There is never any actual work observed taking place. From the volume of chatter and people trading paper work in the halls for the benefit of the cameras, Tetra Corp sees an hour or less of actual employee activity in a given day, assuming the papers exchanged and the meetings people are going to are actually work-relevant for the former case, or even taking place in the latter case. Not only did someone cover up what happened that day, they did a really elaborate job of arranging for actors to come in and play out what a casual investigator would expect to see based on the records. This is not a trivial thing. Someone wanted to conceal the truth really hard. Ainsley, if she is not examining all the equipment, may have been left to wait while X and Horus did so. And she, as a result, may be the one to notice that not only has no security expert come to see them a half hour after they were shown in, but the hallways outside, previously so busy, are very, very quiet. Another 'bomb threat'? That no one warned them about? If she scans the building, or even just pokes her head outside... The place is empty. Empty except for the sound of rapid foot falls. Combat boot-like. Someone is coming. A lot of someones.
X	X does indeed note discrepancies, giving Horus several nods after coming to disturbing conclusions. All throughout his examination, the Reploid template's face has grown increasingly frustrated and worried. Lips peeling back to show teeth. His high-definition optics are quite capable of picking up the discrepancies in quality, every minor distortion that the human eye miiiiight miss. He doesn't need intense training to spot it, because his optical processing is just that good. "Tampered?! ... This person isn't just a hacker, but... wait... if the original footage was tampered with, and someone could organize a cover-up--" Thankfully, he's also far from stupid. Way too much time has passed, and when his microphones DO pick up sound of HEAVY BOOTS approaching, he grits his teeth. "Ambush! Get ready!" He hisses at EVERYONE around. At the same time, he attempts to open a channel to the Paragon Police Department. He might have a very useful video stream to send them in a moment... if his transmission's not being blocked. Assuming they have equipment he can interface with.
Ainsley	Ainsley pieces together the clues. Once she found no evidence of the devices currently being here, she realized they had all been removed right after Flower Knight had been hit. And once that was clear, she turned to observe what Horus and X were doing. The two of them figure out that the footage is all a fabrication. And when they find that out... she watches carefully the whole time. Then she turns to listen, remembering how quiet it was. How empty Flower Knight said it was... She's already drawing her sword before the ambush is apparent, because she already came to the conclusion that... "This is a front," she surmises, "Whatever this company is, it isn't what it appears. We were likely led here by that woman to make it easier for us to be neutralized." She turns to Horus, "Did you see a quick way to the exit? We cannot get trapped in here with whoever is coming, we will be at a disadvantage." She pauses, while the footsteps grow closer. "Not that I doubt your abilities." She speaks a few strange, incomprehensible words down to the book that remains open in her off hand, the pages rapidly flipping in response, until she discovers the appropriate spell for snatching the transmission frequency of short range tactical devices; even if they encrypt their data, she could probably exploit it later so they don't get ambushed again. And then she activates her Sight and steps back, her sword held at the ready in case she has to defend herself. "I'll try to steal their tactical comm frequencies," she tells the others, "I can't really fight that well so I hope you two are good at it." Says the woman confident that a fight is going to happen and carrying no fear in her tone or posture.
War Witch	Crud. As X and Ainsley sound the alarm, Horus leaps up from the chair, gauntlets glowing with green energy. "I'll bet if we get taken prisoner they'll bring in whoever took control of Flower Knight and do the same to us. And this time, they'll probably use us to say we didn't find any evidence, or go off on a false line of investigation to mislead people... These don't seem like people who would make the same mistake twice." Yes, getting taken prisoner is definitely not an option. Not with something that can overwrite both brains and computers with ease. Horus thinks about Ainsley's question. Other ways out of the building... He remembers a feat that Reinhardt pulled off, by accident. Maybe if Horus does it on purpose... He scans underneath them with thermal sensors in his helmet. Then he raises both hands above his head, channeling energy to them as he folds his fists together. "Get ready to move when you hit the ground!" Then he brings both fists down and smashes through the floor with tremendous force, dumping all three heroes down into an access way below them. And from there, moving quickly and quietly, their combined senses, sensors, and floor plans of the building, should allow them to find an access panel to the outdoors, and escape. Getting out of here is simply the better option, not getting into a fire fight in an enclosed space. But if anyone wants to propose a different course of action, it will take several tense minutes of evading capture before they're able to flee the area anyway. There's time to suggest such.
X	Horus makes a move that X believes quite smart. Make their own exit. Flight is the better choice here, especially since the sound strikes him as humans on approach! But. This group knows who's come. They know what they're capable of. "Be ready for more!" X concludes, before leaping head-first down the hole. He hits the ground below and rolls forward, getting on the move...
Ainsley	Ainsley is not entirely ready for what Horus does, except that when the floor is knocked out from under them, she deactivates her Sight and curses under her breath. The book gets shoved back into her coat as she elegantly drops to the same level as the other two, and then starts flying forward, sword still in hand so that she can slash at anyone that gets close enough to her to do so and poses an obvious threat to them. "Good thinking," she compliments Horus, once they're out and the threat has passed, on their way to distance themselves from the building.