essen ♔ where not a single soul gets through

[superswank]

♬ rainbow factory - glaze

WHO || Sydney B., Andrew, Diana, Felicity, Sebastian [Closed]
WHAT || The Knights investigate a hacker friend of Andrew's who has gone off the grid
WHERE || Essen, Germany
WHEN || Jan 10th, shortly before 7pm [forwarddated]
HOW || Actionspam. Single thread, don't worry about maintaining tagging order.

The flight to Essen is very short, only about half an hour, and Sydney makes good time flying them there. Wynn has a car already rented and waiting for them as usual and then it's a short drive to the coordinates Lady Nell sent them.

While the neighborhood in question was once a very nice residential development, it now shows decades of neglect. There is a squat, one-story storefront across from what appears to be a riot control vehicle that appears severely battered.

Comments

[superswank]

[ with a mighty 8 search check, syd's really more concerned with the obvious signs of damage on the riot control vehicle. ] The doors and front hood are all gone... the engine's wrecked. Someone - or something did a pretty thorough job.

[ search or investigate checks (whichever is better for you) to look for clues from everyone doing so, please :) ]

[allmydreams]

[Felicity moves forward, scanning the scene as she goes to see what she can pick up from the store front window (search 13). She wants to get closer, pick over the damage, but she's just seeing what she can figure out from a distance first.]

[superswank]

[ felicity notices that the windows are actually completely missing, and the frame of the front door lies on the ground. ]

[opprobrium]

[ Moving around the riot vehicle with her he didn't find much to be of use. [ Search check; 3]

...It clearly hit the something? [ When all else fails, be a smartass.]

[astrae]

[Diana's kept behind Felicity for the most part. The car that the others are picking over is brutal, but looking at the abandoned storefront is ... something is wrong. There's a fleeting sense of familiarity there, but she shoves it to the back of her mind, and puts it down to nerves.]

I'll check the door -- or what's left of it, I suppose. [She's trying not to grimace but well -- she is only sixteen. Her shoes crunch against the pavement when she crouches for a better look (investigate 17).]

[superswank]

[ diana notices something extra about the glass that's missing from the door and window - it's missing. from the scene entirely. there's not a smidgen of broken glass anywhere to be seen.

it appears that the door was brutally ripped off its hinges... and looking through the frame into the store beyond, she notices bullet holes in the walls. sticking her head in even that far, she detects a faint whiff of cleaning solution in the carpet. looking to the left, she can see that one of the walls has an indentation, as if from a large object striking it with heavy force.

bright posters of places like tahiti pepper the walls of what appears to be a travel agency.

syd comes around the other side of the vehicle again to meet sebastian. ]

If there were a police response to the scene, they should still be here. Who did this belong to...?

[allmydreams]

[Felicity moves to get a closer look at the windows, seeing if there were any sign of which direction the glass broke from on the frame of the window (spot 11).]

Is it just me, or does this strike you as kind of freaky?

[That's mostly to Diana, but she'll allow other commentary.]

[opprobrium]

Yeah, this is a bit strange. Shouldn't this place be crawling with cops? This doesn't sit right right me.

[ When she came around he was packing the box of cigarettes against his hand, not opening it. Nope just keeping his hands busy. Looking at the car a moment.]

Shouldn't it smell of gas or something? In movies their is always a hug mess. [ He slipped the box back in his pocket, and moved a bit closer to knell down to look under the car. (What the hell Dice. Gather Information Cha 20+1)]

if the window thing is wrong lmk and i'll change it, arden!

[astrae]

[She nods, running her finger along one of the grooves where the door should be, and brushing off her knees as she straightens into a standing position.] It's very odd -- and very clean.

[Diana repeats her finger swipe on one of the windows, using the entire flat of her hand (investigate 11). She should have at least a paper-cut by now, but there's only dust against the edge of her fingers, and the bright photos along the wall have caught her eye - along with the bullet holes, which she points out to Felicity.] Maybe there's some sort of debris inside? There couldn't have been time after the gunshots to collect everything. Someone might have noticed.

[She looks again toward the posters (spot 6), trying to discern whether or not they've been tampered with without actually going inside by herself.]

[allmydreams]

[Felicity has no such qualms about going inside, climbing through the missing window and scanning the room in front of her (spot 10).]

They take the glass from the windows, they take the door. But they leave bullet holes. It's like they were trying to cover something up but it wasn't necessarily the violence.

[superswank]

[ there are no skid marks beneath the vehicle, implying that it was parked when it was destroyed this way. the engine seems to have been destroyed without puncturing the gas tank.

the posters all look in order, on the walls, but at a glance there's nothing more to see within, other than a door that leads to a backroom, which is ajar slightly.

sydney checks around inside the vehicle. (search 22) ] It's unlocked...

That's strange. This thing is completely clean inside. I don't see a speck of dust. And there's space for equipment in the back, but it's all gone.

[opprobrium]

[ EVen as lost as he was in all of this, he was listening to them speak and it sounded as strange as it looked to him. Sure Action movies seen late night were his best source of information on such things but... how wrong could they be?

He was dropped the rest of the way to look for anything strange on the ground under the vehicle. Maybe missed glass, or something noticeably gone underneath.( Search: 13)]

[superswank]

[ nothing visible under the riot control vehicle :c apparently, they were pretty thorough. sydney picks her way over to join the girls inside, scoping out the bullet holes and running a hand over one, before turning on a penlight and looking inside. (search 24) ] They're fresh. I think we beat the police.

Not to mention, whoever cleaned this place up? [ she clicks off the light and turns around with a frown ] Even pulled the bullets out of the wall.

[allmydreams]

So there's definitely something they're trying to hide.

[Which is never a good sign.]

There has to be something. No one is that thorough.

[opprobrium]

There isn't jack underneath.

[ he called out as he started to push his way back up. This was strange as could be.]

[superswank]

[ sydney frowns and wanders back towards the car, poking her head gently in andrew's window. ] Andrew... is there any way you could contact Lady Nell again? Maybe she'd be willing to give us some information on exactly what they were here for in the first place.

[badexample]

Huh? [He's just been staring at his computer, willing the search to work faster. Sadly, he has no abilities like that.]

Uh- yeah! Yeah, sure. [See Andrew. See Andrew multitask. He pulls up another program to reach out the Lady Nell.]

[superswank]

[ lady nell's garish face appears on the screen once more.

]

"You again, honey? With good news, I hope."

[ syd leans over, one hand on andrew's shoulder so that her face can be on the camera too ]

I'm afraid not. There was some kind of altercation here - bullets fired, someone possibly thrown at a wall. But someone's cleaned up the evidence.

We were hoping you might be able to tell us more about their assignment.

[ lady nell sighs. ]

"Why did I know you were going to say that? It's never good news. Alright, fine sweetheart, here's the deal. I can't share intel unless you're working for me, but lucky for you, I still need the job done. 73K. That's what they were going to get."

[badexample]

Yeah, sure- fine. We're working for you. [Andrew could not give a shit less about money. Normally he'd want to check with Wynn that it was alright to sign them up for something like this but... he's not really thinking about that.]

So what the fuck were they doing here? [He gets foul mouthed when he's stressed okay.]

[superswank]

[ lady nell's nails suddenly become very interesting to the fixer as an explanation unfolds. ]

"Ice's Irregulars were hired to find a Mr. Johnson's newlywed bride, who is about three months pregnant. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson are both active in the magic community. I don't know much more - Mr. Johnson met with the Irregulars virtually and then went off the grid himself. Mr. Ice was confident that they could retrieve the woman before the established secondary contact time that Johnson set out for them."

[ syd frowns and glances at andrew. ]

That's not exactly a lot to go on.

[ nell shrugs ]

"Take it or leave it, sister. It's all I have."

[badexample]

There's nothing else you know about the Johnsons? Either of them?

[superswank]

"Did I stutter? That's all I've got. Now don't get yourselves killed, because finding a third team's bound to be a bitch and a half." [ annnnd nell out, bitches.

sydney lets out a frustrated sigh ]

Well. At least we know what they were looking for. Maybe there's something we overlooked.

[badexample]

[Andrew huffs at the now blank screen. With his search still running, he gently sets his laptop on the dashboard and pushes his hands through his hair.]

Magic. That's all we know. They've involved in the magic community. D'you think someone came for her? Wanted to make her disappear?

[He reaches for the door handle and pauses to smile at Sydney enough to give her an indication that he's getting out. As much as he wants to just track the signal, he can't make his computer go ding any sooner than it wants to.]

[superswank]

[ syd smiles back slightly and moves away to give him room when suddenly a hand slams against the driver's side window, hard. ]

"WAIT!"

[

the voice sounds panicked and strangely distant, and comes from a guy in a hawaiian shirt with bright pink hair, staring through the window at them. they could have sworn no one was there moments before... ]

"That was Lady Nell, wasn't it?" [ he licks his lips nervously ] "You're the backup team. Fat load of frakkin' good you slots turned out to be! You're as useless as my glitched-up cliphead slitch of a sister! You're too late, shit-for-brains, we've all been killed." [ the words cause his face to crumple and he turns to despondently sink against that side of the car ] "Oh gods. I've been killed! I'm dead! This is the end! There's nothing left! I'm dead! Dead!" [ he curls up in a half-fetal position, rolling over onto the road on the other side of the car where he sobs and mutters to himself. sydney just staaaares across the car, before slowly turning to look at andrew. ]

[badexample]

[Andrew jumps, passenger door still open as he watches this guy have his freak out on the other side. Once the noise just falls to his muttering, Andrew gives Sydney the same strange look.]

Uh... [helpful, gatewood. He blinks and starts to move around the car and eventually crouches in front of the guy, because towering over him while he's all fetal'd out is probably a bad choice.]

You're, uh- you're not dead. Why don't you just tell me what happened? [Why is he doing this? He's terrible at this. He just sounds confused and annoyed and maybe a little freaked out??? (diplomacy 3)]