Heroes of Millaine IC 2 - Coming Soon to a Theater Near You!

[Llyarden]

Sean took a series of photos of the carnage that had been wrought by the stolen suit before sending them to Ash.

[A suit was here - not the one Jennings used. Seems like most of the people in the building were out celebrating - and seeing what it could do. Is this devastation enough to get someone to investigate this place officially?]

This time he hung around instead of zipping off in further pursuit of any scent trails. If SIDE did show up and any Defiant who might still be in the apartment building took offence to being investigated, he would probably be the best chance of avoiding anyone getting badly hurt - on either side.

[manwithaplan]

Sebastian watched on quizzically before attempting to make eye contact with with Levitt. He nodded to his colleague.

"Well done, good point," he conceded.

Then the engineer's eyes went back to Declan.

"Aren't you just feeding the idea that you're putting too much emphasis on us as suspects? You know I'm not eager to avoid being investigated, but a certain amount of focus becomes unwarranted."

Apologetically. He said it apologetically.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Declan and Sebastian

"I'm inclined to agree," Drechsler said, a faint frown on his face, though whether of disappointment or consideration was hard to say.

"Yeah. Look we don't mind being investigating and you doing due diligence and all that. But if you've just already decided it's one of us and that's that, I don't really see how anything we say is going to help you.
I think we've made clear that none of us have any specific knowledge of what happened."

Cavill frowned a little and said, "Rhetoric aside, Sebastian wasn't wrong earlier. You're an established Hero, and I believe - I think we all believe to at least some degree - that we can trust you. End of the day, we do all want the some thing, and we would like to help your investigation however we can. Perhaps a show of good faith would be in order. You've been exchanging some texts. Has your team learned anything? If you can share some information with us, I think it would be a good show of open-mindedness. And who knows, we might even be able to offer insights on it that the IIN couldn't."

Patty let out a little laugh. Not like mocking or even really amused, but not quite nervous either. Just a kinda involuntary, "everything about this situation is just completely crazy at this point and if ya'll don't mind I think I might have to check out here before my brain cannibalizes itself" breath of laughter. They definitely hadn't prepared her for scenes like this in law school.

Spoiler: OOC

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Yeah hate to say it but while that would have been a solid argument if you were like trying to convince a jury that his theory didn't hold water, it honestly more reinforces Levitt's point that Declan's biased towards viewing the evidence in the least favorable way for them. In fairness that may be because I wasn't particularly clear about what the thrust of his argument was (or well at least not until in the Discord after the fact). In any event, you may take another swing if you'd like, but it will require at least two of the following: a strong enough rebuttal to counter his point on its own merits; a successful opposed social check; accepting Cavill's compromise.

Sean

Definitely. Great work. I'll get some people there ASAP.

It didn't take too long for a couple IIN agents to arrive at the scene, but they waited a few minutes more for a couple local police to arrive as well, and began processing the scene. A few people came out (and several more faces could be seen in windows) about a minute after the police arrived, looking like kinda rough-and-tumble types, but they weren't armed and didn't start any trouble. They just glared. A lot.

One of them smelled like the scent trail that had led you here.

[Hyperbolic sine]

Declan fell into silence, pensive. Then scratched his head with a conflicted sigh, and remained silent for a while longer.

"Look..." he began, then paused, still unsure what to say.

"I think you're misunderstanding something. I'm not here to...hmm."

"I'm not a trained investigator. I'm not even an untrained investigator. This isn't really a questioning, as I probably couldn't tell if you were lying or not. This is a chance for you to do the right thing and help catch whoever made that massacre possible."

"If you want to clam up, then so be it, I don't really know what more to tell you...though I suppose at this point there's only so much you could say without accusing someone else, and I know you wouldn't do that. Guess we're done here then."

"And as for the the texts..."

The only thing harder than resisting telling them that yes, they did indeed find something, was trying not to look at Jennings. But he couldn't really risk making him feel cornered in a room full of Sleepers.

"...not much yet, I'm afraid."

Spoiler: OOC

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Do I have to roll Deception for this? (1d20)[14]

And yeah, I know this is basically not even trying, but...honestly, I can't think of anything better. Also, it's not like they're going to start throwing accusations left and right when the accused is within earshot, and I don't know what Imore I could ask that wouldn't lead to that. Also also, Jennings worries me a lot.

[Llyarden]

Sean met the glares with calm, even looks - though he did focus just a little more intently on the man whose scent trail he'd followed here. For the most part, he just hung back and let the IIN and police do their thing - he was working on the assumption that Ash had passed the information down to his agents, who in turn would have informed the police - but if it seemed like they were missing something (like not searching the pickup or something) he'd point it out to them. At least until the time came to start interviewing the residents of the apartment block.

While the police were getting people organised and taking names and whatnot, Sean took the opportunity to quickly pass on the last piece of information he had - he couldn't very well take a photo of the guy he'd followed to send to Ash, after all. "The guy who met Jennings is just over there," he informed whichever IIN agent he could more easily get a quiet word with. "Tanned, kinda shoulder-length brown hair, pretty burly, grey jacket." (Physical descriptions were not really Sean's forte; he could've described the smell of the guy in excruciating detail, but that wouldn't have been very useful for identifying him to the IIN and police.)

And while he wasn't going to actually start asking questions of the Defiant personally, he was definitely present when the police started interviewing them. He wasn't expecting them to tell the truth, of course, but since he could pretty easily tell if they were lying he'd end up with the truth one way or the other. And if his present meant that the Defiant were too busy being angry at him being there to concentrate on keeping their story straight, then that would just be a bonus.

Spoiler: OOC

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I just kinda made up a physical description for Jennings' contact; hopefully that's okay.

Also Sherlock Scan on him: (1d20+20)[39]

[manwithaplan]

"The thing is..." Sebastian trailed off, having begun to make a point while he was still not sure exactly what it was.

"The thing is, he's right about not being an investigator. I'd still call him one of the heads of this investigation, but it's a triumvirate with him, Ash, and the other Hero. Ash's qualifications are obvious. Sean has extremely enhanced sensory abilities. But Declan is...well, I'm sorry man, but Declan's only real merit is that he's a good man who we can trust. What's telling to me is that while the master spy and the bloodhound are somewhere else and doing their own thing, they've left Declan in here with the twelve of us, and our lawyer, to talk to him. Given the weight the other two can bring to bear as interrogators, it feels like we're under relatively little scrutiny. Levitt, you, uh...again, I'm sorry, Hero, but...Levitt, you alone are smarter than this guy. And on top of that there's a dozen of us and an attorney. He's not in charge here. He's not in control. He's just doing his best to do what he was told to do, which as far as I can tell, is stay in here and talk it out with us while the work gets done elsewhere."

"So I'm not really worried about bias. Or at least, maybe he's biased against us as culprits, but that's literally why he's in the room - to see what comes out of us. Now, a guy like Ash might be up to something. Like, maybe we tell Declan what we know and then he tells Ash and Ash twists it against us. Patty's got a point there. But Declan himself isn't out to get anyone. He's just a good guy that got left in here. He doesn't know about the limitations of RFID, or what's easier or harder to falsify. He's not biased so much as all he knows to do is consider the possible actions of the team. For me personally, I'm willing to let him consider."

Spoiler

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Persuasion to counter (1d20+12)[27].

[Quellian-dyrae]

Declan and Sebastian

"Um, ouch," Emmett said with a little laugh.

"I'm sure we can all agree that we're happy to help talk through possible ways the crime had been committed," Holzer said. "That said, Vonda's not wrong that we have made rather clear that we don't have any specific information to give you. What other questions do you have?"

Agent Ash, however, chose that moment to step back inside. Or, well, poke his head in, anyway. "Mr. Reynolds, may I speak with you outside a moment, please?" he requested, his tone of voice utterly, professionally neutral.

Sean

Ash sent a text indicating that the team had excluded Engineer's Otis and Dunn based on the footage around the times you had given. It also contained the rundown on the owner of the pickup. His name was Imran Mulloy. While he had a rap sheet, it was mostly low-key stuff like disturbing the peace, a couple assault charges. Although Ash noted that in his career, he's done internal investigations into a fair few cops who had been protecting Defiant in their jurisdictions, and the people they were protecting often had files that looked like that. He also mentioned that he had obtained Jennings's psych eval, although obviously that wasn't something he could just text.

You noticed several significant details about him, too. Of course, you could still smell the gunpowder and fertilizer on him...along with traces of a few other chemicals that confirmed that he had definitely been creating explosives in the not-too-distant past. His knuckles were heavily calloused and a couple of his fingers kinda crooked, suggesting he'd been in several fistfights in the past, but you noticed that two of his knuckles in particular were badly scarred; you'd guess he had shattered them at some point in the past punching something far less yielding than human flesh. The look of contempt he wore as the cops did their work indicated he'd had some less-than-friendly run-ins with them in the past. You could smell more nanites from the suit on him; he'd certainly worn it himself at one point, probably during the "demonstration". The other residents standing around him do seem to defer to him somewhat in their body language; he's probably more-or-less the leader here. But most importantly, you can smell traces of Jennings's scent trail on him - his right hand, specifically. He definitely met Jennings recently, and they definitely shook hands.

The cops questioned the residents, asking about, you know, the bullet holes in the wall. The scorch marks on the asphalt. The obviously-bullet-riddled-and-explosion-rent steel beam. The suspects...didn't actually do much answering. I mean, they were obviously playing dumb. You didn't need your sense of smell to be able to figure that out. But they obviously knew their way around the system; they didn't even give answers straight enough to try and use against them as lying to the police, even though proving they knew something would have been an uphill battle anyway. Their responses were largely things like "Yep, that sure is weird," and "Sure seems like someone went at the thing pretty hard." Oh, and "Has anybody in the area reported a crime, Officer?" They used that one a lot.

And though you could smell their hatred for you, they were evidently smart enough not to try to assault a Hero in front of the police, more's the pity.

The search proved...a little more fruitful. While there was nothing incriminating in Mulloy's apartment, the building did have a cellar, and the warrant did cover shared or public areas. And in that cellar the police found about a dozen sets of body armor, literally over a hundred guns, most of which would have qualified as Professional-grade weapons, about two-dozen homemade explosives, and a couple score other miscellaneous weapons and paramilitary tools.

...And the residents happily produced licenses, permits, and registrations for all of them. Mulloy even had a license for crafting explosives "for use in demolitions".

Have I mentioned that Ilessia's weapons laws are a joke? Because seriously, you guys, they're such a joke.

"I'm sure if you'd like to run ballistics tests on our weaponry, you'll find that none of it was responsible for the damaged wall or that steel beam," Mulloy told them once they had finished confirming that everything was in order. He was looking over the shoulder of the cop he was speaking to to give you just the smuggest-looking grin when he said it.

[Hyperbolic sine]

Declan shrugged with a grunt in reply to Sebastian's assessment of his capabilities, in a wordless rendition of "can't be helped, it's the truth". Then, before he could possibly start digging his own grave again by not actually having more questions, Ash swooped - well, poked - in to save the day.

"Ah, yes. I'm coming." he said, standing up from the chair to head out from the room.

"What is it? Found more evidence? We need to separate Jennings from the others."

[Llyarden]

"Oh, I'm sure they will," Sean agreed, surprisingly amiably. "But here's a more interesting question for you, Mr Mulloy - where were you about ten hours ago?"

"Of course, you don't have to answer me, given that I'm not a law enforcement official or anything." He preempted the obvious evasion. "But I have been officially asked on behalf of the Ilessian military to investigate the attack on Garden City, so I can just ask one of these guys to ask you instead. May as well save some time and just answer."

He still had that slight smile on his face. Rather as though he knew something Mulloy didn't.

[manwithaplan]

Sebastian shook his head after Declan was cleared from the room.

"Hate this. But hopefully they're onto something out there."

[Quellian-dyrae]

Declan

"In the meantime, I would like to confer with my clients, please," Patty requested, to which Ash nodded, tapping a couple things on his Active Crystal device.

"Sean seems to have located Jennings' contact among the Defiant," Ash replied once they were out of the room and the door closed, not even bothering to hedge his bets. The evidence was more than sufficient for internal work and...almost sufficient for military court. "And we've...officially excluded Engineers Otis and Dunn, for what that's worth at this point. But yes, that was my thought as well. I've been looking over Jennings's past evaluations. I'm no therapist, but it seems to me the guy was already walking a tightrope. Evidently he did a stint at a Repentant 'containment facility' a few years back. The military was something of an alternative to it, but he's mentioned regularly receiving contact from some of the people he knew back then trying to convince him to return. No mention of anything Defiant related, but he could have hidden that from the evaluators, or it could have happened in the past six months. He's a clear candidate for radicalization."

"All of which means he's not likely to come quietly. Fact is my team won't be able to so much as slow him down. Most of the personnel on this base would barely be an inconvenience to a Dreamer that powerful. So what I'd like to do is stall him, get the squad suited up, and have them on hand when we place him under arrest. Hopefully he'll be less inclined to attack his friends, and even if not, six ADE operatives should be more than enough to handle him."

"I'll be honest, I wouldn't mind also having two of the Heroes of Millaine on-hand if it comes to that, but realistically, if he's a radicalized Repentant, you two would be his priority targets in the event of a conflict. I figure with the ADE squad we've got more than enough firepower to take him down without too much risk of collateral damage. You guys have absolutely done your share here, so if you want to head home before this all goes down, you're more than welcome to."

Yeah, thing is, Ash isn't making a point of it, but while a full ADE squadron certainly has the power to overwhelm even someone like Jennings...they aren't Heroes. They're military. Jennings can undoubtedly tank even ADE-level weaponry reliably, but with that much concentrated fire from weaponry that powerful, the line between incapacitating and killing Jennings would be razor-thin. In all probability, if the ADE squadron fights this battle, they're going to end up being forced to kill their friend. With you and Sean beside them, the odds might be reduced some, but combat is a chaotic affair and soldiers are trained to keep shooting until the threat is down - they wouldn't be negated entirely. The ADE operatives are darn good, don't get me wrong, but it would take a power-armor master to engage with that much firepower and be reliably able to keep the target alive.

You absolutely don't need to take the risk here, but the truth is that the most likely way to take Jennings alive would be for you and Sean to take him on yourselves.

Sean

Mulloy's only response to you was a twitch of contempt at the corner of his mouth.

After a few moments, one of the police officers rolled her eyes and asked, "Mr. Mulloy, where were you about ten hours ago?"

"I'm afraid I can't provide a confirmable alibi for that time, but why does it matter? Did someone report a crime happening around then?" he replied, just as smug.

And then one of the IIN agents answered, "Right. You're adorable, but I'm just about done here.
Let me spell this out for you. This little act of disturbing the peace?" she gestured broadly at the destruction in the lot. "That's the least of your worries. See, we have evidence suggesting where you were ten hours ago, and confirming what you did there. So if you can't provide us with a confirmable alibi, I'm going to ask these fine officers here to place you under arrest."

"And they're not going to take you down to the local station. They're going to turn you over to us. And we are going to investigate you on charges of grand theft, conspiracy to commit mass murder, and treason. You conspired to steal from the Ilessian military, *******. So unless you want to spend the rest of your life in Federal prison, I suggest you stop deluding yourself into thinking whatever friends you have in not-nearly-high-enough places are going to protect you, and start talking."

Spoiler

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Okay IIN. Sean gave you a good set-up, so I'm giving you one last chance. This isn't just behind-the-scenes fiddling on computers. There is a PC watching. The reputation of your entire organization is at stake here. Do you want to be considered IN-SIDE's baby brother forever, or are you going to step up?

IIN Agent Intimidation to Demoralize: (1d20+5)[14]. IN-SIDE's
Mulloy Will: (1d20+4)[9]. Baby

IIN Agent Deception: (1d20+8)[16]. Brother
Mulloy Deception (-2 if Demoralize succeeds): (1d20+6)[21]. Forever

Sebastian

"In the meantime, I would like to confer with my clients, please," Patty requested, to which Ash nodded, tapping a couple things on his Active Crystal device before he and Declan exited the room.

"Yeah, the sooner this is over the better," Vonda agreed.

"Not to put too fine a point on it, but it would probably be over sooner if you all would listen to our lawyer and stop answering their questions," Azhar marked.

"Oh yeah well shut up, Azhar," Rafe answered in kind.

"Sooo you guys have been pretty quiet," Bette said to the engineers (Sebastian aside, obviously). "Any non-self-incriminating ideas?"

But before they could make up for not getting like literally any lines of dialogue in the past few posts, Patty said, "They have a suspect."

There was a moment's pause, and then Bette said, "Oh, awesome. So we should be out of here soon, then!"

"Not so awesome. It's one of you."

...That put a damper on even Bette's cheerful attitude.

"...And you know that how, exactly?" Brianne asked.

Patty hesitated, and before she could answer herself, Azhar said, "She's an empath." He spoke in a slightly slower, more drawn-out voice that you knew meant he didn't know what he was saying for a fact, but was confident in his guess. Looking at Patty directly, he followed up with, "It's why you reacted so strongly when Rolph got angry earlier, isn't it?"

"It's not something I tend to bring up much, but yes," she said. "Mr. Reynolds was feeling...pensive earlier. And conflicted. He was lying about the texts. And when Agent Ash poked his head in, I sensed a sort of vindictive satisfaction from him. He is convinced he knows who did it. I didn't detect any indication of pity or regret, so he believes whoever he suspects did it of their own will. And...there was fear there, too."

[Llyarden]

Sean waited for a couple of moments. When it became apparent that Mulloy wasn't going to answer, he sighed. "You're right, it doesn't really matter. Not to us, anyway, That was me giving you a chance to admit the truth. You're responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent people in Garden City - a lot of people wouldn't have given you even that."

He stepped past Mulloy, apparently dismissing him from existence, and regarded the other Defiant instead. "See, here's the thing. If you'd just kept the suit miniaturised and handed it off, it would have taken us longer to find anything to use. But you got arrogant. You decided to take it out for a test drive."

"Turns out, though, these suits regenerate themselves, fabricate new nanites to replace ones that get damaged or old. And when they don't need a nanite, they just shed it, like a bird moulting. So anyone that comes into contact with an active suit gets these nanites just...all over them." That little smile that had been on Sean's face the whole time became a lot more...predatory. "They're clingy little things, too. Who knows, maybe it's a security measure to make sure when a suit's stolen it's easy to find the thief. So even though you wash yourself, your clothes...you can't get rid of them quite that easy."

"I already sent pictures of the damage caused over there back to the head of the investigation, way before the police got here. And as was quite helpfully pointed out, it doesn't match any of your gear here. Any military scientist or engineer will take a look at those photos and know that it's the kind of damage the stolen suit would cause. And from that comes a forensic search of this place, and of its inhabitants - the kind of search that can find these expired nanites."

"Of course, you might be thinking that now would be a good time to dispose of any clothes you were wearing while you were playing around with the suit, before the warrant shows up. But...well, I've been doing this whole thing of rooting out Defiant cells from the military for a while now, and a fun fact about our legal system I've learned - if evidence mysteriously vanishes before it can be procured for use by prosecutors, that tends to be pretty damning."

"And like Mr Mulloy was told, this isn't a local investigation. So your friend in the local police force who keeps burying the cases against you will either realise there's nothing that can be done and abandon you, or try to intervene and give us a nice case of corruption to build. Neither one of those is going to help Mulloy or any of you."

"So, these are your options. Either you can testify to what happened ten hours ago now, or you can stick to your 'you don't have any evidence' theme and be arrested in a little while." Sean gave a small shrug.

"It's your choice."

[Hyperbolic sine]

"I see." Declan replied, nodding once. "But I won't leave."

He had too much blood on his hands already. Never would he allow someone to die, if it was in his power to prevent it. Not even Defiants.

"You can get the squad suited up, if you want, but only as a backup plan.
No one should be forced to fight their teammate and friend...and sure, Jennings might hold back, but so might they. We'll be the ones dealing with him if he goes berserk. And if he focuses on us, all the better."

"No one else dies today."

He was speaking on Sean's behalf too, but...he didn't really have any doubts as to which option he'd choose. And speaking of Sean...

[I need you here ASAP.]

[manwithaplan]

Sebastian's head went to the table for a moment. The integrity of the Bastion Investigation was almost entirely assured, which was almost unfortunate, because now he had nothing to distract him if a friend was taken away.

"What do they have to be scared of?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

Sean

The Defiant...did look kinda uncomfortable at that. They tried not to show it, but it was obvious enough to anyone watching, and doubly so to you.

Mulloy, however, spoke up, still smugly confident. "Ha. Please. You're wasting your time," he said dismissively. "I was the only one who actually put the suit on, so none of them have anything to worry a-" it was about then that he noticed the looks his comrades were giving him "-...bout?"

...

...

"****."

The police and IIN agents kinda stared at him with "wow, did you really just say that?" looks on their faces for a moment, before the officer who had played telephone for you reached for her cuffs and began intoning, "You are under-"

Mulloy, with that classic keen logic and problem-solving skills that the Defiant were famed for, found himself in a deep hole and decided that the best way out was to keep digging himself deeper until he reached the other side, or something. "KILL THEM ALL!" he extolled his cohorts.

And for just about any other group, it would have been a nice sight gag as his minions just kinda stood around sheepishly trying to pretend they didn't know him. But these were the Defiant! They leaped into action, going straight for the pile of weapons with just two surprised police officers guarding them! A firefight between the IIN and police and this many Defiant in a residential area was almost certain to be an utter bloodbath!

Still Sean, Approximately Five Seconds Later

With the Defiant soundly neutralized (in whatever manner best suits your cultural traditions) you got a text from Declan.

Declan

Agent Ash gave you a look for a moment. It wasn't strictly a surprised look. It wasn't quite a relieved look. It wasn't really an uncertain look. It wasn't...honestly, it wasn't really a very communicative look at all. His face remained as professionally neutral as ever. But it was definitely a look.

Then he said, "Very well. We'll ask to speak with them one at a time, and just have Jennings come in first. I expect his attorney will insist on remaining present. If he becomes hostile, I'll get her out while you and Mr. Hyer engage and neutralize the threat. Sound good?" He didn't even pretend he'd be of any tactical use to you in a battle of that scale, but neither did he shy from being in the room and doing what he could.

Sebastian

Sela followed your question up with her own. "So you've just been psychically spying on us this entire time?" she asked, and while Sela was a fairly reserved person in general, she did not sound best pleased. As one could imagine, she was rather...sensitive to the idea of psychic powers being used on her friends.

Patty just gave a little sigh. "It's not really something I can turn off. But as far-"

"You could have informed us, though."

"Like I said, I tend not to bring it up. It is what it is. As far as what they might be afraid of...I would imagine it's the person they believe is responsible."

"Vonda! How could you!?" Bette joked.

Vonda cast her a smirk. "That doesn't really make sense though. Without our armor...I mean, sure, we're no chumps, but it's not like they couldn't contain one of us."

"Yes...and especially considering they have two Heroes with them. Two of Millaine's Heroes at that.
I would not want to take that fight even in my armor, frankly."

"This doesn't make sense. The only ones we have who could present a meaningful threat to Heroes without our armor are Sela, Rolph, and maybe Vonda." Vonda shot him a "just how much firepower do you think this cyber-arm is hiding?" look. "And Vonda wouldn't be a clear enough threat to prompt them to be afraid, but Sela and Rolph are Dreamers. They're pretty much the least-likely suspects by definition."

"I can't say what their thought processes are. Only what they felt."

[Llyarden]

Sean let the Defiant get to their weapons. Not out of a sense of fairness or anything - just so they couldn't claim they'd been trying to escape, rather than to try to kill four law enforcement officials (and a Hero).

Thing was, Sean could more than understand where their fear of Dreamers came from. Even though it was plainly apparent (to him, at least) that no-one in the apartment block would have cared if Kayode had killed twice the number of innocent people - Sleeper or Dreamer - that he had...they'd allowed their fear to be corrupted and twisted into hatred. More than anything, Sean pitied them. So while he could have drawn the battle out for the sake of there being plenty of evidence against them - and there was a part of him that always enjoyed the look of outraged impotence on their faces when they realised that not only were they not going to achieve their goals, but they weren't even going to die for their fanatical beliefs - he finished the fight quickly. Even Mulloy received nothing more than a superhumanly powerful cuff to the back of the head that he probably never saw coming.

"Well, that was annoying," he grumbled - bringing down a group of Defiant smugglers was a win for sure, but it hadn't given them any actual evidence tying Jennings to the theft. Then Declan's text arrived. "Ah, heck. I'm guessing you guys can handle the rest. I gotta go."

And then he sprang away, leaving the IIN agents and police officers in the middle of the apartment block with unconscious Defiant strewn all around. This was probably a pretty weird day for them.

A short while later, Sean arrived back at the base. "What's happening?"

[Hyperbolic sine]

"Thank you." Declan replied with an appreciative nod. "And yes, I don't think we can persuade her to not be in the room, but...I'd like to have a word with her nonetheless." Trying wouldn't hurt, and at least she'd be putting herself in danger willingly.

Then, while Ash organised things, he'd fill Sean in.

---

If Patty (and, well, neither Ash nor Sean were opposed, I suppose) agreed to the chat, Declan would waste no time in pleasantries when entering the room. "I'll go straigth to the point, Miss Abel. You've seen how Jennings reacted before, and I've see how you reacted to that, and, well, whether he's guilty and feels cornered or isn't but panics, he could lose control. You would be in very real danger. I would like you to use comms instead of being physically present in the room when we'll question him."

He would, however, not insist further than that. It wasn't some kind of ploy to leave Jennings without an attorney, he just wanted her to make an informed decision.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

First, Declan would make clear from the start that this is what he'd say, so...as I said, if either Ash or Sean are opposed, this won't happen. Second, on the off-chance this isn't auto-noped by going against her principles, spending a success to roll Intimidation (1d20+22)[29].

[Llyarden]

"I think we should talk to the rest of the squad first," Sean said, once Declan had caught him up on what had happened while he'd been away. "Leave Jennings to last. Sure, it would mean he'd be sitting around getting nervous, which isn't great, but if the rest of the squad sees us fighting him and don't know what's really going on it...might not go well. And I don't exactly think this is going to go subtly."

"Also, we don't have any tangible evidence against him yet," he pointed out, after a moment's reflection. "From what you've said, the IIN can't get anything useful from his suit, and his Defiant contact is a) going to be out cold for a while and b) particularly stupid even by Defiant standards, so I don't know if we're going to get any useful evidence from him once he wakes up. I'm working on proving that the person who handed off the suit is in the base at the moment, but it's going to take a while and probably won't be that precise anyway. Taking Jennings down only for him to be released because we haven't proved anything isn't going to help."

[Hyperbolic sine]

"Him meeting with the Defiant contact during a what should have been a test flight isn't evidence enough?" Declan replied, rasing an eyebrow. "He doesn't have to know we don't have hard evidence...we just have to tell him that we know and ask him to explain that. Even if he comes up with an excuse, he's admitting to a violation of the rules, but I don't think he can in the first place. He'll either confess, or try to make a run for it."

"And the rest of the squad can just watch the questioning from a monitor. At that point there'll be all the evidence we need."

[manwithaplan]

"Okay then. So now what, Ms. Abel? I say this politely, but is it best for us to assume that your intuition is incorrect?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

Sebastian

"I suppose it's not impossible, but in my experience it is more likely that the information they are using to draw their conclusions is incorrect," Patty responded.

Shortly after, Ash stuck his head in again and requested that Patty speak with him outside. Patty nodded and walked out.

"Well," Seydou said, "That's not ominous at all."

Sean and Declan

Patty considered Declan's request. It was...quite unorthodox, to say the least, but she had felt Jennings's anger and she felt Declan's concern now. "Are you aware that my not being present could be taken as an indication of mistrust? It may agitate him and cause the very loss of control you are concerned about.
If you insist, I will do as you ask, but I ask you if it is really necessary to isolate and question him like this?"

[Hyperbolic sine]

"It is. I'll take an increased chance of him attacking us over a small chance of you getting caught up in it and killed any day." Declan replied, delivering what could have been, in other circumstancesquite the cheesy line with utter seriousness.

No one else would die that day. Even if that person somehow always ended up being a Defiant's defendant.

"B-"

-esides, we have proof...he bit his tongue before he could say that. Well, not proof proof, but still. He hated beating around the bush like that, but he didn't want to throw a wrench in the others' plans by spilling the beans to the defense attorney.

He glanced at Sean with questioning eyes. He'd leave it up to him.

[Llyarden]

"We're not trying to tell you what to do, Ms. Abel. If you genuinely think you have no other option but to remain with Jennings, we won't stop you. But please don't prioritise our safety over yours."

Sean met Declan's gaze briefly before returning his attention to Patty. "And we won't just be asking him routine questions. We have evidence that he was responsible for the theft. Maybe not the kind of evidence we can produce in court, yet - though from what Agent Ash tells me, the legal requirements are a bit more lenient for military cases - but evidence enough that we can ask him questions that he'll either have to lie to or admit that he was responsible. Either way, he may not be able to remain as calm as he has so far."

[manwithaplan]

Sebastian slumped as they were left in the room, alone.

"Yeah. Yeah, this isn't terribly comfortable. But whatever happens...happens. Let's just wait them out."

[Hyperbolic sine]

If Sean had decided to trust her, so be it. Being straigthforward suited Declan most, anyway.

"Well, there you have it." he said, apologetic. "Sorry for having lied about the texts, but I couldn't risk it."

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Well, I can't say that I like it, but as long as I am able to observe and communicate with my client, I suppose it is acceptable. I will warn you, I will not hesitate to take you to court if you try to do something that undermines my client's defense," Patty said. She said it very neutrally, a statement of fact and nothing more.

She kinda blinked at Declan's apology, and gave him a bemused smile. "That's...very nice, but I didn't go into that room expecting honesty from the investigators."

--

It didn't take long (well, unless you intentionally made it take longer) to get the squad separated, so that you could speak with them, or with Jennings alone, as suited you.

Spoiler

Show

I uh...still didn't really get a particularly clear consensus on what you guys wanted to do, so basically leaving it open. Heck, you could do both things in parallel if you want. I'm flexible.

[Llyarden]

Once the whole squad - except Jennings - was assembled, Sean spoke. His voice was...a little hesitant, at first, but it grew stronger as he continued. "I guess the first thing we should explain - we're not talking to you now so we can...try to trick you into giving evidence we can use, or anything like that. We just figure you deserve to know what progress we've made."

"After I left you guys with Declan, I started following your scent trails around. Engineer Jennings flew a lot further off the base than any of the rest of you." He wasn't going to try to hide that the investigation was focused almost entirely on Jennings at this point - it wasn't like Jennings' absence from the room would go unnoticed, after all. "He met someone in a disused parking lot, and handed off one of your suits to him. That person then went back to an apartment block populated by Defiants, and decided to celebrate by taking it out for a test drive." Sean tapped a button on his phone, and one of the photos of the destruction Mulloy had wrought around the apartment block popped up onto the larger screen in the room. "The Defiants are all in custody now, mostly because they tried to kill four law enforcement officials after their leader admitted to possessing the stolen suit. But that brings us back to Jennings."

"Best-case scenario: he was controlled, somehow his memory was altered at the same time so he doesn't know it, and if we ask him enough questions, it'll break through whatever mental block was put there. But in any other situation, and even if he was controlled and had his memory altered, asking him a lot of questions he'll have difficulty answering honestly might make him lose control."

"So. Agent Ash is going to take you guys out of harm's way. If you want to suit up, then - as long as the IIN is finished with your suits - that's fine, but whatever happens next, please don't interfere without the IIN's permission. It'll be a lot safer for everyone - including your friend." It was only at the last sentence that Sean's tone softened a little.

[Hyperbolic sine]

Declan offered the team the same apology he offered Patty a little earlier, then returned to the matter at hand.

"You know Jennings far better than we do. Why would he do something like this?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

The squad's reaction as you laid out your evidence was muted, but that didn't make it any less clear. It didn't take Sean's nose to see the doubt on their faces, mistrust in their eyes.

But if you did have Sean's nose, beneath that grew a rising cloud of worry. Of pain. Not yet shame or anger. They weren't there yet, weren't quite that convinced. But even they knew it did not look good. They didn't speak to answer Sean's claims.

With one exception.

"You're wrong," Bette Emmett blurted harshly. This entire time, the newest operative on the squad had been relatively laid-back, and even cheerful. Not that she wasn't aware of the seriousness of matters, but she had rolled with it. She had been joking and bantering casually throughout the entire process.

Now her eyes were burning behind a sheen of withheld tears, her face tight with fury, her words sharp with challenge as she defended her Personal Engineer. "I don't care what evidence you think you have. Maybe someone framed him. Maybe you missed something. Maybe you just messed up. But you are wrong! Rolph didn't do this! He wouldn't! I work with him every day. He- His entire life is built around not hurting people! You think Rolph gave someone a suit? Are you stupid or something? He-"

"Bette," Joubert warned, firmly, but gently.

Contrary to the evidence suggested by every prior interaction between the two of them, Emmett straight-up ignored her and steamrolled on, her voice only getting sharper and colder. "He wouldn't need to give a suit to some Defiant if he wanted to cause damage!
You have no idea what Rolph is capable of! If for some inane reason Rolph wanted to do something like this, he could have just grabbed some handheld scanner that nobody would miss and gone off and done it himself. Oh, I know what you'll say, that this was some sort of plan, right? So it wouldn't lead back to him? Except that's idiotic, because he wouldn't need a plan. He wouldn't even need a freaking mask, because if Rolph Jennings was on the warpath? There wouldn't be a witness left alive to report it!"

"Bette!" This time Joubert and Drechsler both tried to interrupt her, less gently.

Emmett just whirled on Levitt, pointing a finger at him imperiously. "Tell them! Tell them, Azhar! Tell them all the reasons they're wrong! Use as many words as you want to do it."

Azhar turned his attention away from the pictures of the apartment scene. He appraised Sean quietly for a moment, his face looking incrementally grimmer with every passing heartbeat.

Azhar Levitt said nothing.

Rafe and Vonda stood at seemingly-instinctive attention, their faces masks.

Sela cast Azhar a surprised look, and then gave a weary sigh.

Sinna bowed his head, and draped an arm over Bette's shoulders (conveniently holding her firmly enough that she wouldn't be easily able to, say, go charging out the door to confront and/or warn Jennings).

Arthur shook his head in mute denial.

Seydou clenched a fist in frustration.

Meriel squeezed her eyes tightly shut.

Brianne cast her gaze to the floor.

...

Nobody seemed to have any answer to Declan's question, aside from...ah.

Well, he had been the one who had said from the beginning that nobody was above suspicion. He had been the one who from the first had admitted and accepted the possibility that it really could be one of them. He had been the one who had tried the hardest to contribute to the investigation.

I suppose it should come as no surprise that when Declan asked why Jennings might have done this, the only answer was several pairs of confused, frustrated eyes turning questioningly on Sebastian.

[Hyperbolic sine]

Declan was expecting some indignant or outraged reaction, but this...this was a little heartbreaking. He couldn't help but grimace a little, as his eyes followed everyone else's to cast their gaze upon Sebastian.